Global Investing Roundups: Toll, Vodaphone, Sirius

Toll Brothers 4Q Revenue Caves; Vodaphone Focuses on Cash; Tyco Doubles 4Q Net Income; StatOilHydro Buys Shale Gas from Chesapeake; Oil Hits 20-month Low; Sirius Posts Profit Loss Despite Increase in Revenue

• Reeling from the housing and credit crisis, luxury-home builder Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE:TOL), reported a 41% dive in its fiscal fourth-quarter revenue, Bloomberg reported. “Unfortunately, the preliminary signs of stability we had discussed in early September were upended by the past month’s financial crisis,” Chief Executive Officer Robert Toll said in a statement.

• Despite first-half profit falling 35% and a reduced sales forecast, Vodaphone Group Plc (NYSE:VOD) investors cheered the company’s plan to focus on cash generation and tightened capital, MarketWatch reported. The world’s largest mobile phone provider also raised its interim dividend by 3.2%.

• Tyco International Ltd. (NYSE:TYC) more than doubled net income in its fiscal fourth quarter, The Wall Street Journal reported. But the electronics and security system provider projected that fiscal 2009 results would fall below analysts’ estimates.

• Cash-flush StatoilHydro ASA (NYSE:STO) said it will buy an inital 32.5% stake in the Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s (NYSE:CHK) 1.8 million-acre Marcellus shale gas reserve. StatoilHydro doled out nearly $3.4 billion for the unconventional energy source, filling a huge hole at Chesapeake, which has a heavy debt burden, Reuters reported.

• The price of oil hit a 20-month low yesterday falling $3.08 to settle at $59.33 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange - the lowest closing price since March 2007.

• Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ:SIRI) said yesterday (Tuesday) that its third-quarter losses totaled $4.88 billion, or $1.93 a share. Revenue more than doubled to $488.4 million, from $241.8 million, however. On an adjusted basis, revenue soared 16% from $529.2 million last year, to $612.8 million.

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