Business briefs, June 8

Thursday, June 8, 2006

NATIONAL

Albertsons to close 37 additional stores

Albertsons LLC, which said Tuesday it will close 16 Colorado stores in the coming weeks, announced plans for further closures in other regions of the country.

The grocer will shut 37 stores in Northern California, 30 in Texas, nine in Arizona and eight in Florida, spokeswoman Stacia Levenfeld said Wednesday. The outlets are expected to close by early August.

The new Albertsons LLC was formed by a group including Cerberus Capital, Kimco Realty Corp. and other firms after they agreed in January to buy 661 stores from the former Boise-based Albertsons Inc.

Northwest sues to stop flight attendants' strike

Northwest Airlines Corp. sued its flight attendants' union to prevent it from striking and placing the bankrupt carrier's reorganization in jeopardy.

The Professional Flight Attendants Association threatened to walk out if Northwest is allowed to scrap its contract and impose new terms. The airline sought court permission to take such action after attendants rejected a tentative agreement that would have reduced pay 21 percent and cut jobs.

TiVo service allows Internet downloads

TiVo Inc., the digital video recording pioneer, started a new service that lets users watch video and other images downloaded from the Internet on their television sets.

Called TiVoCast, the service comes with downloads available from sources that include the National Basketball Association, The New York Times and Web-based news provider Cnet Networks Inc., Alviso, Calif.-based TiVo said Wednesday.

Former Buca exec settles SEC charges

The former chief executive of Buca Inc. agreed to pay more than $565,000 to settle charges that he had the company buy an Italian villa in his name and reimburse him for home remodeling, dog kenneling and other personal expenses without disclosing the perquisites to investors.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced a settlement Wednesday with Joseph Micatrotto, the former chief executive of the Minneapolis-based casual-dining chain. The SEC said Micatrotto's annual compensation was understated by 27 percent to 74 percent from 2000 to 2003 because the personal expenses weren't listed in proxy statements.

H&R Block posts drop in quarterly earnings

H&R Block Inc. said Wednesday that fourth-quarter earnings fell 4.5 percent as the company began restructuring its mortgage business and settled class-action litigation surrounding its use of refund-anticipation loans.

For the three quarters ended April 30, the nation's largest tax preparer reported earnings of $587.5 million, or $1.77 a share, compared with $614.9 million, or $1.83 a share, during the same period a year ago.

The results included an after-tax charge of $6.4 million, or 2 cents per share, to cover restructuring the mortgage business.

Excluding the charge, H&R Block had earnings of $1.79 a share, meeting the expectations of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

Revenue for the quarter increased 6 percent to $2.5 billion.

United to pull 5 flights from Midway airport

United Airlines will pull its five daily flights out of Chicago's Midway International Airport, citing lack of demand, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune.

The nation's second-largest carrier, which has its main hub at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, said its last flight at Midway will be Sept. 5. Three of the Midway flights are to Denver on United's low-fare arm Ted.

Customers with reservations after Sept. 5 will be moved to flights at O'Hare, the Tribune said. United reportedly has not decided where to redeploy the planes that serve Midway.

GlaxoSmithKline, J&J among Pfizer bidders

GlaxoSmithKline PLC, the maker of Aquafresh toothpaste, offered more than $15 billion for Pfizer Inc.'s consumer unit, one of at least three bids received by the U.S. company, people familiar with the negotiations said.

Johnson & Johnson and the U.K.'s Reckitt Benckiser PLC also are willing to pay more than $14 billion, The New York Times said Wednesday.

Black Hawk casino owner buys Nev. facility

Golden Gaming Inc., a casino company with operations in Nevada and Colorado, said it is buying the -Pahrump Nugget Hotel & Gambling Hall.

The privately held company based in Las Vegas said Tuesday it has agreed to buy the facility for an undisclosed price from Generation 2000 LLC.

The deal must be approved by Nevada gambling regulators.

Golden Gaming operates three casinos in Black Hawk and is Nevada's largest tavern operator with 43 establishments.

LOCAL

EchoStar moves all local stations onto one dish

EchoStar, the operator of the Dish Network satellite-TV service, told the Federal Communications Commission that it met the deadline to move all of its local TV station offerings onto one dish by today.

In late 2004, Congress passed a law giving the Douglas County- based company 18 months to stop requiring some subscribers to obtain a second dish in order to view all their local TV stations. At the time, EchoStar had more than 30 two-dish markets.

"EchoStar is happy to report that as of June 1, 2006, it has transitioned all two-dish local markets to a same-dish offering, primarily by use of its newly launched EchoStar 10 spot-beam satellite," the company said in a filing with the FCC.

Minerals Management sells royalty-in-kind oil

The Denver-based Minerals Management Service on Wednesday said it had sold 8.4 million barrels of crude oil from the Gulf of Mexico to be delivered over a six-month term as part of a royalty-in-kind sale conducted in May.

The sale provides for delivery of the crude to begin July 1 from 38 separate locations in the Gulf.

Under the royalty-in-kind program, energy companies may give a portion of the oil or gas they produce to the MMS, which can then sell it.

Winning bidders included Shell Trading Co., Chevron Products Co., Exxon Mobil Oil Corp., Plains Marketing, Nexen Marketing U.S.A. Inc., National Cooperative Refinery Association, -CIMA Energy and Conoco Phillips.

Anschutz sells option on Qwest shares

Qwest founder Phil Anschutz sold an option on 10 million of his Qwest shares for $13 million to an undisclosed buyer. The shares, held by the Anschutz Family Investment Co., can be purchased by the option buyer on Jan. 18, 2008, for $7.50 apiece.

Anschutz Co. and the Anschutz Family Investment Co. continue to own more than 300 million Qwest shares combined.

ECONOMY

Pace of borrowing picks up in April

Americans increased their borrowing in April at the fastest pace in 10 months as credit-card spending and auto loans both picked up.

The Federal Reserve reported Wednesday consumer borrowing rose at an annual rate of 5.9 percent in April, a significant increase from a tiny 0.8 percent gain in March.

The 5.9 percent rate of increase for overall borrowing was the biggest gain since borrowing rose at a 6.8 percent rate in June of last year.

The increase in dollar terms was $10.6 billion, which pushed total consumer credit to a record $2.17 trillion. The Fed's measurement of consumer credit does not include mortgages and other loans secured by real estate.

The 0.8 percent rise in March was revised down from an original estimate a month ago that borrowing had risen at a 1.4 percent rate during the month.

For April, consumer borrowing on credit cards and other types of revolving loans rose at an annual rate of 4.5 percent after having fallen by 2.3 percent in March.

Consumer borrowing for auto loans and other types of nonrevolving credit rose at a rate of 6.7 percent in April after having fallen by 2.6 percent in March.

• Top financial officers at U.S. corporations are concerned about rising wages and inflation but still plan to hire more workers and buy more equipment, a quarterly survey released Wednesday found.

The survey of chief financial officers found the executives responsible for accounting and financial management are more pessimistic about the U.S. economy, despite predicting that their own companies' profit would increase by about 10 percent over the coming year.

About a quarter of CFOs said they are more optimistic about the U.S. economy, down from 42 percent three months ago. About half said they are more optimistic about their own companies, suggesting that larger economic pressures have not yet affected most firms directly, the survey by Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and CFO Magazine found.

THIS JUST IN...

• The Rockies Venture Club, a networking group, will hold its annual Colorado Capital Conference in downtown Denver today. Frank Day, co-founder of Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery, the Chop House and Old Chicago, is expected to be the opening speaker. Reid Hoffman, a former executive at PayPal, also is expected to speak.

• The Colorado Software and Internet Association announced the winners for the 2006 CSIA Apex Awards Tuesday night. They include:

Rookie of the year: Kozio Inc.

Use of technology for global impact: Hythane Co.

Catalyst of the year: Xcel Energy

Technology marketing: Interlink Group

Innovative technology: Logisens

Technology service: Decisioneering

Technology product: Encision

Technology company: Webroot Software

Technology advocate: Scott Burt, Integro

Technology executive: John Oechsle, IHS Inc.

• Safeway stores in Colorado and surrounding states are partnering with the Prostate Cancer Foundation to increase consumer awareness of the disease and raise funds for prostate cancer research. Safeway is offering prostate cancer screenings during June at selected Safeway pharmacies. The screening will cost $10.

• Oklahoma City-based Paycom has promoted Kelli Howard to sales manager of its Denver office. She will manage the sales team for Denver and the surrounding areas in the selling of its Internet payroll and human resources products.

• Rocky Mountain Farmers Union President John Stencel has sent letters to Sens. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and Wayne Allard, R-Colo., expressing his organization's frustration with a House-Senate conference committee's decision to strip $3.9 billion approved by the U.S. Senate for disaster assistance.

• Denver-based McClain Finlon Advertising hired David Moorehouse, Heather Randall and Joshua DeWitt.

• Parks College in Thornton and Aurora will change its name to Everest College next week.

• Colorado Access, a nonprofit, Denver-based company that operates the state's largest health plans for Medicaid and Child Health Plan Plus, as well as a Medicare Special Needs Plan, has hired Charles "Chuck" McDow as its new director of pharmacy services.

• Denver-based Royal Gold Inc., a precious metals royalty company, said its board of directors has declared its third-quarter dividend of 5.5 cents per share of common stock.

• Englewood-based Accuvant, a provider of information security and regulatory compliance solutions, said it has spun off ControlPath Inc., a developer of automated compliance management software, as an independent company.

• Event Solutions magazine will hold its annual Idea Factory: Events Education Expo in Denver at the Colorado Convention Center from Aug. 20 to 23. The conference for meeting and event professionals will focus on showcasing the latest products, events and trends in the event industry. For further conference information and pricing visit www.event-solutions.com.

Compiled from News staff, The Associated Press, Bloomberg News, Scripps Howard News Service.