Kraft sees higher sales, profit in 4Q

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Updated: March 23, 2012 8:14AM

Kraft Foods Inc. said Tuesday that its fourth-quarter net income rose 54 percent, to $830 million, or 47 cents per share, compared with earnings of $540 million, or 31 cents per share, for the same period in 2010.

The company, whose brands include Oscar Mayer, Nabisco and Maxwell House, said revenue rose nearly 7 percent, to $14.69 billion. Kraft is in the process of splitting its business into two publicly traded companies, cutting 1,600 jobs in the process. One will focus on its international snack brands while the other will concentrate on its North American grocery business.

New credit card accounts rose in 2011

More people opened new credit card accounts last year, as the banking industry began to loosen standards it tightened during the recession.

The number of new cards issued to consumers rose 14 percent in 2011, to about 42.3 million, according to data provided by TransUnion. And about a quarter of those cards — roughly 10.7 million — went to people with less-than-stellar credit histories, TransUnion said. Most borrowers who ran up big balances that they couldn’t pay off are now out of the system because their banks have written off their cards as uncollectible.