Business briefs, October 18

Published October 18, 2006 at midnight

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NATIONAL

Universal Music Group suing Web video sites

Universal Music Group is suing the operators of two video-sharing Web sites, claiming they illegally let users share music videos and other copyright material without permission.

Universal Music, the world's largest recording company, filed separate lawsuits against Grouper Networks Inc., operator of Grouper.com, and Bolt Inc., which runs Bolt.com. Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures Entertainment acquired Grouper for $65 million in August, and Universal Music said it may add the film studio as a defendant.

N.Y. apartment complex sells for $5.4 billion

One of the largest apartment complexes in the nation was sold to a developer Tuesday for $5.4 billion after a bidding war that included tenants who expressed fear that their middle-class homes would be replaced by top-dollar luxury apartments.

MetLife Inc., one of the nation's largest insurers, announced the sale of the Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town apartments in New York City to the Tishman Speyer development company in a joint venture with BlackRock Realty, the real estate arm of BlackRock Inc.

The $5.4 billion price tag makes the sale one of the biggest residential real estate deals ever.

The 110 apartment buildings along the East River include mostly below-market, rent-stabilized apartments, a community center and private parkland.

Southwest will offer Dallas-to-Denver flights

Moving quickly to take advantage of a new law allowing Southwest Airlines Co. to expand its service from its home airport near downtown Dallas, the low-cost carrier said Tuesday it will offer one-stop flights to 46 cities - including Denver - with fares starting at $99 each way.

Before the law was passed last week, Southwest passengers could not get one-stop flights from Dallas Love Field to most of the country.

Among the cities that Southwest will fly to from Dallas are Las Vegas, Chicago, Los Angeles and Orlando, Fla. All those flights will have to stop first in a nine-state area including Texas. The airline said it plans two daily flights, each with one stop, from Dallas to Denver.

Southwest also will offer two-stop routes to Hawaii.

More security promised for reverse mortgages

Federal housing finance agency Ginnie Mae announced Tuesday it will begin scrutinizing reverse mortgages, which allow older homeowners to convert equity in their homes to monthly streams of income or lines of credit.

Ginnie Mae, which offers mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by the federal government, sees a growing market for reverse loans as the U.S. population continues to age. The wholly owned government corporation says the number of reverse mortgages issued in the U.S. increased by 73 percent between 2005 and 2006.

Under the agreements, homeowners older than 62 receive payments in a lump sum, a line of credit or a monthly payment. The loan becomes due only when the last borrower moves out, dies or sells the home.

Genzyme agrees to buy Canada's AnorMed Inc.

Genzyme Corp. on Tuesday agreed to buy a maker of an experimental bone-marrow transplant drug for $580 million after Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. declined to up the ante in a rare biotechnology sector bidding war between crosstown Cambridge, Mass., rivals.

Genzyme's acquisition of Vancouver, B.C.-based AnorMed Inc. is the second major deal in less than a month in the emerging biotech sector, after Foster City, Calif.-based Gilead Sciences Inc.'s Oct. 2 announcement of plans to acquire Westminster-based Myogen Inc. for $2.5 billion.

Millennium said it was entitled to receive a $19.5 million breakup fee from AnorMed because the Canadian company switched its support to Genzyme's offer.

LOCAL

Court rejects deal in Quovadx lawsuit

Quovadx Inc. said a court rejected a $10 million settlement it had reached with the lead plaintiffs in a shareholder lawsuit involving the company's past accounting woes.

But the Greenwood Village company also said the two sides have tentatively agreed on a new, $9 million settlement aimed at winning court approval.

Quovadx said the court balked at the initial deal because it "purported to settle claims on behalf of a settlement class that is broader than the class that was certified by the court for trial purposes."

In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Quovadx also said it is working to finalize the new proposed settlement. The court must approve any new pact.

Audio Fest to begin three-day run on Friday

Several Colorado companies are among the exhibitors scheduled to showcase their wares at the 2006 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest on Friday through Sunday at the Denver Marriott Tech Center, 4900 S. Syracuse St.

The show includes more 100 "listening rooms" where audiophiles can check out the latest sound systems (and some video setups) from a host of dealers and manufacturers from more than 20 countries, including the U.S., Japan, Norway, England, Canada, Australia and Denmark.

Show times are Friday from noon to 6 p.m.; Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets are available at the door or online at www.audiofest.net (click on "Registration"). Tickets are $10 per day or $25 for a three-day pass, which includes admission to seminars and the show's live music, scheduled Friday and Saturday nights from 6:30 to 10 p.m.

CU Hospital names DeFurio to CFO post

Anthony DeFurio will become chief financial officer of the University of Colorado Hospital on Dec. 2. He replaces Forrest Cason, who has been planning to move on to new opportunities after the hospital moves to Fitzsimons, the hospital said.

DeFurio is currently chief financial officer at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, a 760-bed academic medical center and one of the nation's largest university-owned teaching hospitals.

Cason, who has been in the post for eight years, will stay on as senior vice president of corporate finance and treasurer during the transition.

Groups join to support minimum wage issue

A coalition of religious and social-justice groups calling itself Let Justice Roll Colorado said Tuesday it will campaign for Amendment 42, a ballot issue that would raise the minimum wage to $6.85 and increase it each year for inflation.

The coalition includes representatives from the Colorado Council of Churches and Lutheran Advocacy Ministry.

"Let Justice Roll believes that it is a moral right for people to earn just wages that keep them out of poverty and the current minimum wage keeps people in poverty," the organization said in a statement. "Supporting Amendment 42 is our way of turning our morals into action."

EnCana's $2 million gift to aid School of Mines

A $2 million gift from EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) to the Colorado School of Mines in Golden will support construction of Marquez Hall, the petroleum engineering building planned at the school.

The gift, in annual payments of $400,000 over the next five years, will fund two lab facilities named for EnCana within the new building.

The facility, named for CSM alumnus Tim Marquez and his wife, Bernadette, who provided a $10 million lead gift, will accommodate the Petroleum Engineering Department's growing enrollment and expanding research initiatives.

The school is engaged in a campaign to raise $40 million to secure funding for the building and endowments for operations and scholarships.

Amstar Group partners in Calif. development

Denver-based Amstar Group on Tuesday announced a joint venture with a California-based partner to develop a $100 million-plus industrial park on 54.4 acres in Riverside County, Calif.

Amstar's partner in the venture is the Kaliber Group of Orange County, Calif.

ECONOMY

Wholesale inflation falls 1.3% in Sept.

Wholesale inflation plunged by the largest amount in more than three years in September as a record drop in gasoline prices offset higher costs for cars and other items. And in a sign of a slowing economy, industrial output dropped by the largest amount in a year.

The Labor Department reported that wholesale prices overall fell 1.3 percent last month, nearly double the decline that analysts had been expecting. Gasoline prices plummeted 22.2 percent, the biggest one-month decrease on record.

In a second report, the Federal Reserve said that industrial output dropped by 0.6 percent in September, reflecting declining production at the nation's factories and a big drop in utility output as cooler September weather cut electricity production.

It was the first drop in industrial production since January and the biggest fall since a 1.3 percent plunge in September 2005 that resulted from widespread shutdowns following Hurricane Katrina.

While the overall inflation performance was much better than expected, core inflation, which excludes energy and food, jumped by 0.6 percent in September, the biggest increase in 20 months. Much of that gain was due to a jump in new car prices, which had been falling because of the widespread use of incentives aimed at moving a backlog of unsold cars.

The 0.6 percent fall in industrial production in September was a much bigger decline than the 0.1 percent dip that Wall Street had been expecting.

THIS JUST IN...

• Utah-based Gandolfos NY Deli has signed Denver franchisee Steve Seribung to open its first Colorado location Nov. 24 at Southlands in Aurora.

• Percept Technology Labs, a Boulder-based product test and consulting firm, said it has signed an agreement with asset management provider Fluensee Inc.

• Canyon Resources Corp., a Golden-based mining company, named Stuart L. Green as general manager and vice president of operations.

• Efficas Inc., a health science and technology development company based in Boulder, said it has secured $14.5 million in Series B financing, bringing the total investment in the company since its founding in 2003 to $23 million.

• Denver-based Jabber Inc. said Securities Industry News and the research firm Financial Insights have named Jabber Inc. among the top five on its SecuritiesTech 50 ranking, an international annual listing of the top vertical technology vendors providing front office solutions to the industry.

• Denver-based Gasco Energy Inc. said Charles H. Wilson will join the technical team as drilling manager.

• Golden-based HumWare Media Corp. said it has signed a letter of intent with iGameface LLC, a West Virgina corporation, to acquire the assets of iGameface and merge them into Timeless Sports Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary. Timeless Sports is a professional athlete memorabilia services company.

• PRSA Colorado presented Boulder-based high-tech public relations agency Metzger Associates with the Silver Pick Award for its public relations campaign supporting Colorado Tech Week.

• Public accounting and consulting firm Clifton Gunderson LLP said it has acquired the Front Range accounting firm Levine, Hughes & Mithuen.

• The law firm Dorsey & Whitney LLP said three attorneys in its Denver office were named in The Best Lawyers in America 2007: Lee R. Osman, technology law; Gary M. Polumbus, intellectual property law and technology law; and Tucker K. Trautman, commercial litigation.

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

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