Hyundai wants to boost U.S. output

Las Vegas » Hyundai Motor America President John Krafcik said the Korean automaker is looking at ways to boost auto production in the United States.

Hyundai produced 420,000 vehicles in the United States in 2011 and was able to squeeze about 10 percent more vehicles out of its plant in Montgomery, Ala., to meet consumer demand.

"We’re looking for incremental production where we can find it," Krafcik told reporters Friday on the sidelines of a forum sponsored by J.D. Power and Associates at the National Automobile Dealers Association annual convention.

Krafcik said after boosting production to about 335,000 from 300,000 at the Ala­bama plant, the automaker is looking at ways to boost production again in 2012.

Yelp reports more losses in 2011

Yelp Inc., the user-generated review site that’s planning an initial public offering, reported a wider loss in 2011 after increasing spending to attract reviewers and make the service easier to use.

Yelp had a $16.9 million loss last year, compared with a loss of $9.74 million in 2010, according to a regulatory filing. Marketing and product-development spending both increased more than 50 percent.

The company filed to raise as much as $100 million in an IPO last November, with plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker YELP. Co-founded by former PayPal Inc. executive Jeremy Stoppelman in 2004, San Francisco-based Yelp is part of a resurgence in Internet offerings. Facebook Inc. filed for an IPO last week, following stock-market debuts last year by Groupon Inc., Zynga Inc. and LinkedIn Corp.