Technology Slice Blog

Unilever Profit Up - Unilever PLC said Thursday its third-quarter net profit rose 19%, boosted by growth in emerging markets. The consumer-products giant said net profit for the three months ended Sept. 30 was €1.25 billion ($1.77 billion), compared with €1.05 billion in the same period a year earlier. Total sales rose 13% to €11.55 billion from €10.2 billion. "We have delivered another quarter of solid progress, driven by our emerging-markets business which again reported high levels of volume growth," Chief Executive Paul Polman said in a statement. The Anglo-Dutch maker of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, Knorr soup and Bertolli olive oil and household products such as Dove, Lynx and Cif, said underlying sales—which strip out acquisitions, disposals and currency movements—grew 3.6% in the third quarter. This measure of sales, which compares with 3.4% growth in the same period a year earlier and a 3.6% rise in the previous three months, is closely watched as a direct...