Financial/Banking

CUPERTINO, Calif. -- Apple announced that for its first quarter ended Dec. 25, 2010, it posted record revenue of $26.74 billion and record net quarterly profit of $6 billion, or $6.43 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $15.68 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.38 billion, or $3.67 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. 

New York City -- The real estate recovery is well under way, though not without some bumps, workout specialist Dennis P. Yeskey recently told a gathering of more 100 real estate professionals at the "Industry Spotlight: Finance -- Global Trends in the 2011 Real Estate Capital Markets" discussion sponsored by NYCREW, the New York area chapter of the Commercial Real Estate Women network.

New York City -- A Tuesday report by Bloomberg said that J. Crew Group is close to settling a shareholder lawsuit over its proposed $3 billion takeover by private-equity firms TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners LP.

Citing two unnamed sources, the report said that as part of the settlement, J. Crew would extend the period to solicit competing offers until Feb. 15 and add provisions that make it easier to accept a rival bid.

Mountain View, Calif. -- Survey results released Tuesday by CyberSource, a Visa Co., showed that the online fraud rate has remained flat in the United States and Canada; however, U.K. merchants are seeing a rise in e-commerce fraud.

According to the annual surveys of e-commerce fraud in North America and the United Kingdom, the 2010 fraud rate (the percent of accepted orders which later turn out to be fraudulent) remained at 0.9% for the second straight year.

Chicago -- Urban Retail Properties LLC said Tuesday it has appointed Samuel J. Greenblatt as principal, finance/capital markets. Greenblatt’s primary role will be to raise capital and foster financial relationship opportunities for the company.

Prior to his role with Urban, Greenblatt was executive VP and director of originations of RAIT Financial Trust, a NYSE traded mortgage real estate investment trust.

Dallas -- Blockbuster has received an extension to Feb. 4 to file its restructuring plan in order to emerge from bankruptcy protection, according to a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The retailer filed for Chapter 11 protection in September.

Between announcing its first international acquisition and disclosing details of its U.S. expansion program, the Target board found time to squeeze in authorization of a quarterly dividend payment. The company’s dividend is currently 25 cents a share and is payable on March 10 to shareholders of record on Feb. 16. The first quarter dividend will be the company’s 174th consecutive dividend paid since October 1967 when the company became publicly held.

Columbia, S.C. -- Edens & Avant said Tuesday it has promoted Jami Passer to managing director. Prior to joining Edens & Avant in 2006, Passer was a partner and consultant with P3 Partners, a South Florida real estate advisory firm as well as being a managing director in the Real Estate Capital Markets Group of Andersen Corporate Finance LLC.