Bangor Savings branch opening on Allen Avenue

Bangor Savings Bank is opening its newest branch on Allen Avenue in the North Deering neighborhood of Portland this week.

Bangor Savings opened two other branches in the Portland area last year, one on Middle Street and the other on Forest Avenue. The bank plans to open a branch on Route 1 in Falmouth in March, according to a release.

Bangor Savings Bank opened its first full-service Portland branch in 2005, and announced in May 2010 plans for four new Portland-area branches and a $4 million investment in the market.

Bangor Savings has 55 branches, roughly 700 staffers and more than $2.4 billion in assets.

Local resident picked for Time Warner post

Cape Elizabeth resident Paul Schonewolf has been picked to head Time Warner’s operations in New England.

As vice president of operations, Schonewolf, 46, will oversee the cable company’s roughly 1,000 staffers and a business that has 350,000 customers in three states.

A 24-year cable industry veteran, Schonewolf previously was Time Warner’s vice president for technical operations in New England.

He joined the company in 1994 as general manager in Keene and Berlin, N.H. Schonewolf graduated from Clark University in Worcester, Mass. He succeeds Keith Burkley, who now heads Time Warner’s home security product line.

MySpace halving its staff in its bid for profitability

Struggling entertainment site MySpace said Tuesday that it is cutting nearly half of its staff worldwide, about 500 people, after an extensive revamp in October overhauled its look and allowed it to be run with fewer people.

Mike Jones, the chief executive of MySpace, said cuts are “tough but necessary” and would put the site on a path to profitability while making it more nimble.

MySpace declined to say how much the cuts would save. A previous round of cuts in June 2009 eliminated about 420 jobs.

The relaunch focused MySpace on giving its users, most between ages 13 and 34, more ways to consume music, videos and celebrity gossip.

Wholesale inventories fall as retail sales pick up

Wholesale businesses trimmed their stockpiles in November for the first time in nearly a year; the decline likely reflected their inability to keep up with strong sales.

The Commerce Department says wholesale inventories dipped 0.2 percent in November, the first decline since December 2009. Sales rose 1.9 percent after a 2.6 percent surge in October, the largest monthly gain since March.

Companies had increased their inventories for 10 straight months before they dipped in November to a level of $425.5 billion. Even with the decline, wholesale stockpiles are 10.1 percent above the lowest point since the recession began – $386.3 billion in September 2009.

Bond auction today a key to Portugal’s financial fate

Portugal insists that it does not need an international bailout to solve its debt problems. It faces a bond auction Wednesday that could reveal the price of going it alone – and perhaps even add to the European financial crisis.

Investors have identified the debt-burdened country as the potential next victim of the crisis and have pushed its borrowing costs to barely sustainable levels by demanding higher premiums.

Market tensions were eased slightly Tuesday after Japan, taking advantage of high interest rates and echoing a similar pledge by China, said it would help finance European bailout efforts.

Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates sought to soothe frayed nerves with evidence that his government, which has introduced pay cuts and tax hikes, is reducing its budget deficit.