Oracle beats outlook, shrugs off fiscal debate

BOSTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Technology giant Oracle Corp said software sales growth will stay strong into the new year despite fears that there could be big tax hikes and U.S. government spending cuts that could cause a slump in spending by customers.
Shares of the world's No. 3 software maker rose 1.3 percent after it reported fiscal second-quarter revenue and earnings that surpassed Wall Street forecasts.
Oracle President Safra Catz told investors that businesses were still looking to spend money already allocated to 2012 technology budgets.
"Folks want to close deals," she told analysts on a conference call following the earnings release on Tuesday. There has been "no negative impact on pricing. Pricing remains very good for us."
Oracle said software sales would grow 3 to 13 percent this quarter, which runs through February. It expects fiscal third-quarter hardware products sales to be flat to down 10 percent from a year ago.
The company's software and hardware forecasts were roughly in line with Wall Street expectations, according to FBR Markets analyst Daniel Ives.
Oracle reported that software sales and cloud software subscriptions rose 17 percent from a year earlier to $2.4 billion in its fiscal second quarter ended November 30.
It had forecast that new software sales would climb 5 to 15 percent from a year earlier, when it last reported earnings on September 20.
"I would call it an early Christmas present," Ives said. "It's a positive sign for the overall technology sector."
Investors pay close attention to new software sales because they generate high-margin, long-term maintenance contracts and are an important gauge of the company's future profits.
Oracle posted a second-quarter profit, excluding items, of 64 cents per share, beating the average analyst forecast of 61 cents according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Jefferies & Co analyst Ross MacMillan said Oracle's results are encouraging for other makers of business software, many of which end their quarter on December 31.
OFF A CLIFF
Some investors have worried that corporations would postpone spending on technology projects because of uncertainty over the year-end deadline for Congress and U.S. President Barack Obama to reach a compromise to thwart an automatic rise in tax rates and government spending cuts.
Failing to reach a deal, economists say, could lead to another U.S. recession. Catz said Oracle's customers are still spending on software.
"What's going on in Washington - I don't know who it's necessarily influencing today. But I can tell you, our customers have been spending money with us even here in December."
On Tuesday, Oracle forecast earnings per share in the current fiscal third quarter of 64 to 68 cents, excluding items. That was about level with an average forecast for 66 cents.
"It tells you that there's still money being spent by enterprises on software. It's not like the world has ground to a halt," MacMillan said.
The picture was not so bright for Oracle's troubled hardware division, which it acquired with its $5.6 billion purchase of Sun Microsystems in January 2010. The division's revenue has fallen every quarter since it closed that deal.
Hardware systems product sales fell 23 percent from a year earlier to $734 million. Oracle had forecast that hardware sales would drop between 8 and 18 percent.
Chief Executive Larry Ellison told analysts he expected hardware systems revenue to start growing in the fiscal fourth quarter which begins March 1.

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BofA CEO: Fed wants bank to show consistent earnings

BofA CEO: Fed wants bank to show consistent earnings
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp needs to show the U.S. Federal Reserve it can produce consistent earnings as part of the annual process to gain permission to return more capital to shareholders, CEO Brian Moynihan said in an interview.
The second-largest U.S. bank is turning a profit in most of its main businesses, but it inherited costly legal problems when it acquired companies during the financial crisis, including subprime mortgage lender Countrywide Financial.
In the third quarter, Bank of America reported only a nominal profit after reaching a $2.4 billion settlement with investors to resolve claims it hid crucial information from shareholders when it bought investment bank Merrill Lynch & Co.
Moynihan declined to comment on whether the bank's capital plan, which is due to the Fed by January 7, will include any proposed share buybacks or increases in dividends. Moynihan suffered a major embarrassment in 2011 when the Fed rejected the bank's request to increase its quarterly dividend, which has been stuck at just one penny per share since the financial crisis.
The Fed has been evaluating capital plans as part of its supervision of bank holding companies and under provisions in the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. It is unclear whether the Fed would approve any request for an increased dividend or share buybacks next year. A Fed spokesperson declined to comment.
"The element that is sort of unique to us is the predictability of the earnings stream," Moynihan said in an interview in his Charlotte, North Carolina, office. "We are working to get through that."
Other banks have demonstrated their ability to earn money more consistently. JPMorgan Chase & Co's quarterly profit, for example, hasn't fallen below $3.7 billion in the past year, even as it has taken losses on disastrous credit derivative trades.
Investors and analysts are hopeful that Bank of America's legal problems will die down soon. Its stock price has more than doubled this year, partly on expectations that the bank will increase its dividend and buy back more stock after the Federal Reserve reviews its capital plans this spring.
Analysts at Atlantic Equities on Tuesday said they expect Bank of America to buy back $4 billion of its own shares in 2013 and $10 billion in 2014, which would be its first buybacks since 2007.
The bank has "made a lot of progress" on legal issues, Moynihan said, but he acknowledged that the company is still working through lawsuits and investor demands to buy back soured mortgages the bank sold off during the housing boom.
In recent weeks, the bank's dispute with insurer MBIA Inc over mortgage-related claims has heated up, with Bank of America filing a new lawsuit last week against the insurer. The legal tussle with MBIA has dragged on, even as Bank of America has worked out settlements with other insurers of mortgage-backed securities issued by Countrywide.
Moynihan said the bank will settle the MBIA dispute if it can reach an agreement that is reasonable for shareholders but otherwise it is ready to litigate the matter.
The bank's shares closed Tuesday at $11.35, up 3.2 percent for the day. The shares are the best performer in the Dow Jones industrial average this year, after falling the most in 2011.
HEALING
In an effort to improve earnings, Moynihan is aiming to cut costs by $8 billion annually by mid-2015 through a program called Project New BAC, including 30,000 layoffs that have been under way since September 2011. Bank of America had noninterest expenses of $76.5 billion in 2011.
In addition, Bank of America expects to eventually reduce costs in its unit that serves delinquent mortgage customers to about $500 million per quarter from about $3.4 billion in the third quarter. If delinquent mortgages continue to fall, that saving should be achieved in 2015, if not sooner, Moynihan said.

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Top UBS shareholder pins rebound hopes on private wealth

LONDON (Reuters) - UBS's wealth management business will help it bounce back from a $1.5 billion rap for rigging interest rates, one of its largest investors said, although fears of costly civil lawsuits could cast a pall over its shares for some time.
Paras Anand, European equities head at Fidelity Worldwide Investment, said legal action sparked by the Libor scandal posed an unpredictable threat to the bank's near-term earnings, even if its core private banking franchise escaped permanent harm.
"The big unknown factor is the civil litigation that could follow on as a result of this...That is one thing at the back of our minds that we have to be cognizant of," Anand said in an interview with Reuters.
"The issue for shareholders is the challenge of pricing that risk in. The potential costs are too unquantifiable and indeed, it's unclear as to whether they will actually manifest or not."
Switzerland's largest bank was hit with the fine on Wednesday after admitting to fraud, paying bribes to brokers and "pervasive" manipulation of global benchmark interest rates by dozens of its staff.
UBS shares were trading 1.3 percent higher at 9:01 a.m. ET, as investors looked forward to the end of a scandal-filled chapter in the bank's history and a renewed focus on managing cash on behalf of rich clients, rather than so-called 'casino' investment banking.
"There's clearly been a backlash against big faceless financial entities but a private bank has big personal relationships with its customers ... These kinds of institutions are surprisingly resilient," Anand said.
"We have seen some awful scandals in businesses much weaker than UBS and they manage to survive," he added.
Fidelity owns around 45 million shares in UBS, equivalent to around 1.2 percent of the bank, and is its fifth largest institutional owner excluding sovereign wealth funds, according to Thomson Reuters data.

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Drugs group Lundbeck's shares hit by profit warning

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Shares in Danish drugs firm Lundbeck fell to their lowest level in over 12 years on Wednesday after it cut its profits forecast for the next two years as European sales slow and spending on new products rise to combat generic competition.
The company has already warned that earnings would stall until 2015 due to cheap generic competition for its existing drugs, meaning new products will be vital for future earnings.
But Chief Executive Ulf Wiinberg said on Wednesday that the negative impact on revenue from healthcare reforms in Europe had also been bigger than expected in the last two years and that slowing European sales and generic competition were hurting.
As a result the company said operating profits would fall further than previously forecast in 2014 as it increases investments in its late-stage drugs development pipeline and product launches.
Lundbeck is working to find new drugs to replace lost revenue from products coming off patent protection such as its antidepressant Cipralex, which is sold as Lexapro in the United States and Japan, and Alzheimer's drug Ebixa.
Wiinberg said 2014 would be the company's peak investment year for the new products pipeline, offering it a solid foundation for growth starting in 2015.
"You only get one chance to launch a product and we have to do it well," Wiinberg said at a briefing for investors.
He was commenting after the company warned in a statement that it now expects revenue in 2014 of about 14 billion Danish crowns ($2.5 billion) and an operating profit of between just 0.5 billion and 1 billion crowns.
Analysts have on average been forecasting a profit of over 2.5 billion crowns for 2014 on turnover of over 14.7 billion crowns, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S Estimates.
Two years ago Lundbeck predicted its annual revenues over the period 2012-2014 would exceed 14 billion crowns a year while earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) would exceed 2 billion crowns a year.
Next years' revenue is now forecast to be in the range of 14.1 billion and 14.7 billion crowns to produce an operating profit of 1.6 billion to 2.1 billion crowns, with no change to the company's forecast for 2012.
Analysts' forecasts for this year are for operating profit to drop 41 percent to 1.99 billion crowns on revenue down 8 percent at 14.7 billion crowns, while for 2013 they predict a profit of 2.26 billion crowns on revenue of 14.5 billion crowns.
Lundbeck's shares were trading down 17 percent at 79.90 crowns at 12.44 p.m. British time, dropping below 80 crowns for the first time since April 2000.
"In the short term, earnings are under pressure," Sydbank analyst Soren Hansen said.
Lundbeck said that it expects a dividend payout ratio of about 35 percent of net profits in the 2012-14 period. Last year it paid 3.49 crowns on basic earnings per share of 11.64 crowns, a payout ratio of 30 percent.
Analysts have been predicting a 27-30 percent cut this year to 2.53-2.28 crowns, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine data.
But a number of analysts doubt that revenue from new products will be enough to secure revenue growth in 2015, compensating for lost revenue from Cipralex, Lexapro and Ebixa which together accounted for about 70 percent of group revenue in 2011.
Lundbeck is working on new products such as antidepressant Brintellix in Europe and the United States for launch at the end of next year or start of 2014, as well as alcohol dependency treatment Selincro in Europe in mid 2013.
"It is difficult to see revenue from the smaller products compensating for the large products," said Hansen.

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New Mauritius Hotels posts 25 pct drop in full-year profit

PORT LOUIS (Reuters) - Luxury hotels group New Mauritius Hotels (NMH) reported a 25 percent fall in full-year pretax profit, citing higher finance costs and fewer tourists, and forecast a 15 percent drop in first-quarter earnings.
Ranked among the Indian Ocean island's most-traded stocks, NMH said on Wednesday that pretax profit for the year to September 30 fell to 603 million Indian rupees, with earnings per share down 20 percent at 3.60 rupees.
The hotels group said that it won't pay a dividend this year, given the difficult conditions in the local tourism industry. Last year it paid a dividend of 2.50 rupees per share.
Shares in the group, which owns eight hotels in Mauritius and one in the Seychelles, closed unchanged at 52 rupees before its results were released.
Tourism, a traditional cornerstone of the Mauritius economy, has been forecast to account for 7.9 percent of domestic product in 2012, down from 8.4 percent last year. The downturn in tourism has been caused largely by economic turmoil in the euro zone - the sector's key source market.

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Ireland announces abortion law reforms, leaving no one satisfied

Ireland took a step today toward loosening its strict antiabortion regime, as the government announced legislation to legalize abortion in limited circumstances. But a battle lies ahead, as both abortion-rights and antiabortion groups appear dissatisfied with the government's new prescription.
A statement issued after a meeting of ministers today announced legislation and medical-legal guidance allowing for the provision of abortion when a woman's life is at risk in pregnancy. The statement also said criminal law would be amended. At present, abortion is outlawed under the 1861 Offenses Against the Person Act. A bill will be published in the New Year, and, after being considered by parliamentary committee, will be put to a vote.
The announcement is a significant move by the Irish government, which for decades has been resistant to shedding its near total ban of the procedure. But its hand was forced two years ago when the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) demanded that Ireland clarify its legal stance on abortion.
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The ECHR ruling stems from the so-called X case of 1992, when a 14-year old girl who had become pregnant after being raped was forbidden to travel to Britain to obtain an abortion. Ireland's Supreme Court overturned the decision and demanded Parliament enact legislation to allow for abortion in circumstances when a woman's life was at risk in pregnancy, including by threat of suicide. The pregnant girl, known only as X due to reporting restrictions, subsequently miscarried.
The government's statement said both the legislation and the guidance would be “within the parameters" of Ireland's constitution, "as interpreted by the Supreme Court in the X case."
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Government lawmakers will be unlikely to have a free hand, though, when it comes time to vote – likely before Easter. Speaking after the meeting, Health Minister James Reilly said: "I know that most people have personal views on this matter. However, the government is committed to ensuring that the safety of pregnant women in Ireland is maintained and strengthened."
Despite the decision, division lies ahead – and the government knows it.
Speaking in Parliament Monday, Kathleen Lynch, a junior health minister, said her government's move would not satisfy people. “Mark my words, there will be another incident when we will have to come back and face this issue again. What we’re about to do is way too narrow," she said.
But Sinéad Ahern of campaign group Choice Ireland welcomes the move as a first step. "It's not something to be sniffed at, politically," she says. "I think it marks a fundamental shift in the debate."
Nonetheless, the matter is far from settled to the satisfaction of campaigners on either side. Antiabortion activists claim it opens the door to abortion on demand, while choice campaigners say the regime will remain restrictive.
What is clear is that any further loosening of antiabortion laws would require a referendum to overturn the eighth amendment to Ireland's constitution. The amendment, added after an antiabortion referendum in 1983, recognizes the right to life of the unborn as equal to the right to life of the pregnant woman.
NEW URGENCY
The question of abortion has taken on a new urgency in Ireland following not only the ECHR decision, but also recent events.
Ireland is still reeling after the death of Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year old Indian woman who died after a miscarriage in a Galway hospital in October. Ms. Halappanavar's widower, Praveen, claims his wife was denied an abortion that would have saved her life. Two separate inquires into Halappanavar's death are underway.
As soon as Halappanavar's death was made public, abortion-rights groups started holding regular protests outside Ireland's government offices and Parliament. After a few weeks of relative silence, antiabortion groups have upped the ante, holding their own demonstrations and leaflet campaigns. Now, both sides are poised for a fight.
Veteran feminist campaigner Ailbhe Smyth says Irish politicians are only acting because public opinion has forced its hand.
"Successive governments have been pusillanimous and completely cowardly on the whole issue. It's beginning to become apparent to our legislators that there is a sense for movement on this issue," she says.
However, antiabortion campaigners make similar claims of support and, unusually, are united with their opponents in calling for a public referendum on abortion.
Youth Defense spokesperson Ide Nic Mhathúna says her group will be stepping-up campaigning in response to the government decision, slamming the proposed legislation.
"Controlled murder is still not acceptable just because it's controlled," she says.
Ms. Nic Mhathúna also questioned recent media coverage of the issue in Ireland. "The entire media is blatantly pro-abortion. A lot of people are afraid to say they're 100 percent pro-life," she says.
PART OF A LARGER DEBATE
The renewed campaigning puts Ireland at the epicenter of an international struggle. The Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League, recently told the Sunday Business Post newspaper it would be funding groups including Youth Defense to the tune of “hundreds of thousands of dollars."
According to Pro-Life Action League's Eric Scheidler, Ireland is of importance to American antiabortion activists because it is a modern nation and yet, until now, all but banned abortion. "It's unusual to have all of modernity but still not have abortion, so those of us who seek to have legal protections for the right to life look at it as an example that this state of affairs can exist," he told The Monitor.
Choice Ireland's Sinéad Ahern says abortion-rights groups do not have similarly deep pockets and a full-blown campaign would be very uneven.
"There is no parity in terms of funding. It would make a huge difference for our campaign to have a bit more reach. Even something as basic as a leaflet campaign is quite difficult for us [and] we have no staff," she says.
Despite being portrayed in the world's media in the wake of Halappanavar's death as a bastion of Catholicism, Irish views on abortion are nuanced.
An opinion poll conducted by research firm Red-C found 85 percent those surveyed said they wanted the government to legislate for the X case, "which means allowing abortion where the mother's life is threatened, including by suicide." As far back as 1997, 77 percent of Irish people surveyed said there should be some access to abortion.
However, the same poll found a further 63 percent supported the removal from any legislation of the threat of suicide as grounds for abortion.
Ivana Bacik, a senator and law professor who is known for her abortion-rights campaigning, says the Irish political class is playing catch-up with public opinion on abortion.
"I think public opinion had already changed before the death of Savita Halappanavar, but it was solidified," she says. "There was a huge fear of the antichoice movement but more and more people are willing to see abortion legislated for."

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Panel on Benghazi attack heaps blame on State, citing 'systemic failures'

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An independent panel investigating the 9/11 attack on the United States consulate in Benghazi concluded that the State Department suffered “systemic failures” in providing adequate security.
The failures listed in a report released last night include relying too heavily on poorly trained local militias for security; “leadership and management” deficiencies in coordination of two important State Department bureaus; and an “under resourced” embassy lacking adequate security equipment, such as security cameras and outer perimeter walls high enough to protect the compound.
“Systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus of the State Department … resulted in a Special Mission security posture that was inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place,” according to the report. The panel, known as an Accountability Review Board, was made up of five people appointed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, including Adm. Mike Mullen and longtime US diplomat Thomas Pickering.
The Benghazi attack, which fell on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. It highlighted the depth of lawlessness still plaguing the country in the aftermath of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi's ouster.
“The attack on the US consulate was just the latest in a series of incidents,” Mohamed Abu Janah, a local radio executive and one of the protest’s organizers, told The Christian Science Monitor in September.
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The month before the attack, in a piece titled “Worrying signs of lawlessness in Libya,” The Monitor’s Dan Murphy noted that some of the militias that fought to oust Qaddafi had taken on gang-like qualities. “Generally untouchable, they continue to swagger through Libya's towns and cities, demanding special treatment as a reward for their role last year. Many of them are now technically integrated into the security services, but continue to operate with impunity,” Mr. Murphy wrote.
He warned that “[T]he steady drumbeat of problems is worrying. If it isn't dealt with, 'rat-a-tat-tat' can transform into 'boom.' "
According to The New York Times, these signs of insecurity were, in part, ignored in planning security for the US Mission in Libya.
The panel also said American intelligence officials had relied too much on specific warnings of imminent attacks, which they did not have in the case of Benghazi, rather than basing assessments more broadly on a deteriorating security environment. By this spring, Benghazi, a hotbed of militant activity in eastern Libya, had experienced a string of assassinations, an attack on a British envoy’s motorcade and the explosion of a bomb outside the American Mission.
The Los Angeles Times notes that the report is “likely to represent the government’s lasting judgment on the attacks.” According to the document, the attack was:
the calculated effort of militants and not a "spontaneous" reaction of an outraged crowd, the first explanation offered by U.S. officials.
Yet the five-member independent panel said that, despite the lapses, no officials had failed to carry out their duties in a way that required disciplinary action.
It also determined that there had been "no immediate, specific intelligence" on the threat against the mission.
The Obama administration's initial response to the attacks and United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice’s inconsistent statements describing the events of the night garnered anger from lawmakers in the weeks leading up to the presidential election.
“The report affirmed there were no protests of an anti-Islamic video before the attack, contrary to what Ms. Rice had said on several Sunday talk shows days after the attack,” notes the Times. This confirmation could reignite arguments that the White House “politicized” Ambassador Steven’s death and the embassy attack.
The Monitor reports that, “At issue were her statements over what had precipitated the attack on the US mission in Benghazi.”
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The legacy of Secretary of State Clinton could also be tarnished by last night’s panel report.
"This is a mark against Secretary Clinton. While she was not singled out, the report highlighted the lack of leadership and organization on security issues, and those fall into her bailiwick," Jon Alterman, head of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Reuters.
An editorial in the Wall Street Journal goes a step further, outlining reasons why Clinton, who is currently recovering from a concussion after fainting earlier this month, should testify on the Benghazi matter.
Mrs. Clinton's testimony is months overdue. Ambassador Chris Stevens and the Benghazi consulate staff reported to her. Their safety was her responsibility. Congress needs to flesh out why security was so lacking, why requests for additional protection for the mission were denied, and who made those decisions.
Despite background briefings by the Pentagon, State and CIA, the Obama Administration hasn't offered a consistent timeline of the Benghazi events. Mrs. Clinton hasn't said what she did that day and precisely how her department liaised with the military and intelligence services. It shouldn't take this long to fill such gaps.
The backdrop to Benghazi matters too. Mrs. Clinton was presumably – as the President's chief foreign policy adviser – instrumental in drawing up the "light footprint" policy in Libya. After the fall of Moammar Gadhafi, the US disengaged. As an elected but weak government struggled to establish itself in Libya, Islamist militias with al Qaeda ties filled the gap. One such group, Ansar al-Shariah, laid siege to the U.S. consulate and CIA annex in Benghazi, killing four Americans. Both the CIA and State immediately pulled out of the city—an abject retreat. What was the rationale for the U.S. approach to Libya, and will it change?
Mrs. Clinton will soon leave the Obama cabinet with sky-high approval ratings and an eye on the 2016 presidential nomination. It's logical for her not to want to dwell on the worst debacle of her tenure at State. But two months ago, she said "I take responsibility" for Libya without ever doing so. It's well past time she did.
According to Reuters, Clinton “said in a letter accompanying the review that she would adopt all of its recommendations.” And the Los Angeles Times reports she is already taking steps to rectify problems identified in the report, including asking for a transfer of $1.3 billion from Congress.
They say the State Department is asking permission from Congress to transfer more than $1.3 billion from contingency funds that had been allocated for spending in Iraq. This includes $553 million for hundreds of additional Marine security guards worldwide; $130 million for diplomatic security personnel; and $691 million for improving security at installations abroad.

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Manziel first freshman to win Heisman Trophy

(Reuters) - Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel was awarded the Heisman Trophy on Saturday, making him the first 'freshman' to win college football's top honor.
Manziel, nicknamed "Johnny Football", beat out Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o and Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein at the swanky ceremony in New York.
"This is a moment I've dreamed about since I was a kid running around the backyard pretending I was Doug Flute throwing 'hail marys' to my dad," the first-year player Manziel said.
"To be invited into this fraternity, what a pleasure it really is.
"I wish my whole team could be up here with me tonight especially my whole offensive line."
The Texan Manziel finished the regular season with 3,419 passing yards and 1,181 rushing yards to set a new total offense record for the Southeastern Conference (SEC) in 12 games.
Manziel, who is not eligible for the NFL draft for at least another year, also broke the 1969 record held by Archie Manning, father of Peyton and Eli Manning, for total offense in a game with 557 yards against Arkansas.
He later bettered that with 567 yards against Louisiana Tech.
Marqise Lee from USC was fourth and Braxton Miller from Ohio State was fifth.
(Reporting by Ben Everill in Los Angeles; Editing by Ian Ransom)

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TV technical union strikes against Pac-12 Networks

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The union representing freelance technical employees who work on live sporting events for Pac-12 Networks went on strike Saturday.
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees wants to establish area standard wages and benefits for the freelancers who work on the network's telecasts.
About 100 union members picketed outside Galen Center, where Southern California hosted No. 14 Minnesota in a men's basketball game. Picket lines also were set up at Arizona State, Oregon State, Oregon and Washington on Saturday where league games were being played. They carried signs reading, 'Pac 12 Networks Unfair.'
Fewer cameras were used on USC's game. Typically, there would be six, according to Steve Aredas, international representative for the IATSE. He said the union has no dispute with any of the Pac-12 schools or arenas.
Aredas said the union has tried to communicate with Pac-12 Networks executives, but they have not responded.
"We respect individuals' right to decide whether to be represented by a union," Pac-12 Networks said in a statement. "Regardless of how they decide, we will remain focused on creating an environment that is inclusive, respectful and allows us to have direct relationships with our staff and contractors."
Since going on the air in September 2012, Pac-12 Networks has employed technicians represented by the IATSE at 10 of the league's schools in the union's jurisdiction. But the union says the network has used non-union labor on many events in those markets or a combination of union and non-union labor working side-by-side.
The union said those technicians working without a contract receive lower wages, no benefits and no job protection.
The IATSE represents members employed in stagecraft, film and television production in the U.S. and Canada.

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Aresco, basketball schools talk Big East future

NEW YORK (AP) — Big East Commissioner Mike Aresco is working with the officials from the conference's seven nonfootball members to keep the rebuilding league from splitting apart.
A person familiar with the situation tells The Associated Press that Aresco and officials from those seven Catholic schools held a conference call Thursday to discuss the future of the league. Those schools are considering breaking away from the rest of the transitioning league.
Such a break could kill the Big East, but it would most likely not end easily.
The current Big East football membership includes only four schools — South Florida, Connecticut, Cincinnati and Temple — that are committed to the league beyond 2013. But there are 11 schools with plans to join the Big East in the next three years.

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Big East nonfootball members mull future of league

NEW YORK (AP) — The seven Big East schools that don't play football spoke with the conference commissioner Thursday about possibly breaking from a league that has been drastically reshaped. Such a breakup would be complicated and could conceivably kill the Big East.
Commissioner Mike Aresco conferred by phone with the leaders of those seven schools, according to a person familiar with the situation. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated press because of the sensitivity of the discussions.
The current Big East football membership includes only four schools — South Florida, Connecticut and Cincinnati, Temple — that are committed to the league beyond 2013. But there are 11 schools with plans to join the Big East in the next three years, including Boise State and San Diego State for football only in 2013.
Because those schools won't be members until next summer, the nonfootball schools in the Big East could vote to dissolve the conference now.
The seven schools that do not play FBS level football are St. John's, Georgetown, Marquette, DePaul, Seton Hall, Providence and Villanova. Officials at those schools have concerns about the direction of the league and feel as if they have little power to influence it.
If the schools were to break off on their own, they could do so without financial penalty. The Big East has provisions in its bylaws that allow of a group of schools to leave without exit fees.
But what they would do remains unclear, as are the legal ramifications of their actions. There has been speculation those seven basketball schools could merge with the Atlantic 10 or possibly add schools from that league to create a basketball-only conference of smaller Catholic schools.
Who would own the rights to the name Big East would even be up in the air.
What would happen to the current and future football members is also unknown. The Mountain West and Conference USA have already lined up replacement members for the schools that have pledged to go to the Big East. Boise State and San Diego State would likely be able to slide right back into the Mountain West, but the seven current C-USA schools would have a less clear future.
The Big East's long-term plan is to form a 12- to 14-team football conference that spans coast to coast, starting next year, while also having a large basketball league with many of its traditional members.
But the most recent defections of Louisville and Rutgers, along with the additions of Tulane for all sports and East Carolina for football only in 2014, have left the basketball schools wondering if it's worth sticking with the plan.
The conference is also in the process of working on a crucial television contract. Those negotiations had to be put on hold when Rutgers and Louisville announced they were departing last month. Any more departures would be another huge setback.
Conference realignment has whittled away the Big East, costing it many of its oldest and most prominent members in the last 16 months. Pittsburgh and Syracuse are going to the Atlantic Coast Conference next year. West Virginia has moved to the Big 12. Louisville is headed to the ACC and Rutgers to the Big Ten, maybe as soon as 2014.

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Navy, Notre Dame meet at Redskins' home in 2014

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- Notre Dame will face Navy at the home stadium of the Washington Redskins in 2014.

Navy officials announced Thursday that the long-time rivalry will move to FedExField in Landover, Md., on Nov. 1, 2014. The teams last played there in 1998.

The Irish and Midshipmen meet in South Bend on odd years, and on even years the contest is Navy's home game — customarily played at regional NFL venues. The two schools, which have played every year since 1926, met for the 86th time on Sept. 1 at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Next year's game will take place on Nov. 2 in South Bend.

Navy's football series with Notre Dame, which is the longest continuous intersectional rivalry in college football, had been extended to 2026.

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