Business briefs, April 10

Published April 10, 2007 at midnight

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NATIONAL

McDonald's to pay more for tomatoes to boost workers' pay

McDonald's Corp. has agreed to pay a penny more per pound for its Florida-grown tomatoes to boost wages for the migrant workers who harvest them.

The announcement was made Monday by a Florida farmworker advocacy rights group and the nation's biggest fast-food restaurant chain.

Florida pickers harvest about 90 percent of the nation's winter tomato supply.

URANIUM RISES Uranium rose 18 percent to a record $113 a pound at a U.S. auction last week because of increasing demand for the fuel used in nuclear power plants, industry consultant TradeTech LLC said.

Uranium prices have surged 57 percent this year, according to Denver-based TradeTech.

That's more than any of the industrial metals traded on the London Metal Exchange, such as copper, or precious metals, including gold.

BERKSHIRE BUYS RAIL STAKE Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. bought a 10.9 percent stake in Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. to become the largest shareholder at a time when rail stocks were hovering close to their all-time highs.

Berkshire had accumulated 39 million shares of the second-largest U.S. railroad as of April 5, paying between $81.18 and $81.80 for the final 1.6 million, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

STEWART's PAY: $2 MILLION Martha Stewart, founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., received total compensation the company valued at $2.06 million, while its CEO Susan Lyne received compensation valued at $2.27 million in 2006, the year the media empire enjoyed a rebound in its business, according to regulatory documents filed Monday.

LOCAL

Marriott, Hyatt part of $620 million hotel acquisition

The 613-room Marriott City Center in downtown Denver and the 190-room Hyatt Beaver Creek Resort & Spa will be purchased by Walton TCC Hotel Investors from Fort Worth, Texas- based Crescent Real Estate Equities.

As part of a $620 million deal, Crescent also IS selling the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa and Sonoma Golf Club, and the Ventana Inn & Spa in California.

On April 2, Walton had cancelled an agrement to pay $625 million for the properties. The offer then was "reinstated and amended."

FIRST DATA COMPLETES DEAL Electronic payment processor First Data Corp. said Monday it has completed its acquisition of Instant Cash Services, a debit and ATM payment processing business, from a subsidiary of Wells Fargo & Co. Financial terms were not disclosed.

NEWS CORP. DIRECTOR Chase Carey will step down from News Corp.'s board once control of DirecTV Group Inc., the satellite-television service he heads, shifts to Liberty Media Corp.

DISCOVERY FIRES 200 Discovery Communications Inc., owner of the Discovery Channel, fired 200 workers to free up money to spend on original programs.

The job cuts account for 3 percent of the Silver Spring, Md.- based company's work force, according to a memo sent to employees Monday by Chief Executive Officer David Zaslav. Discovery's owners include John Malone's Discovery Holding Co.

SWIFT POSTS LOSS Swift & Co., the third-largest U.S. beef and pork producer, said it had a net loss of $48.6 million in the quarter ended Feb. 25 as beef sales fell.

A year earlier, Greeley-based Swift posted a loss of $49.4 million. Overall sales fell 6.9 percent to $2.09 billion.

ASPEN AIRPORT REPAIRS BEGIN Aspen's airport began a scheduled two-month shutdown on Monday so its lone runway can be replaced.

The $11.9 million project is scheduled to end in June, with reopening planned for June 7.

Aspen/Pitkin County Airport officials said the 7,000-foot runway has not been overhauled since 1983.

TRAINING CENTER TO OPEN Mi2International., a Denver company that provides training to law-enforcement personnel, plans to open a training center in Florence.

The company's CEO, Michael Padilla-Pagan, expects to hire up to 15 people over the next year for the facility.

NEW INTRAWEST PASS Intrawest will offer a newly created ski pass through May 28 that allows unlimited skiing at Winter Park and Copper Mountain during the 2007-08 season, as well as six unrestricted days at Steamboat Ski Resort.

The Rocky Mountain Super Pass Plus also includes free skiing after noon every Friday at Steamboat, which became an Intrawest holding last month.

THIS JUST IN...

• The Internal Revenue Service, the Denver Asset Building Coalition, the city and county of Denver's Office of Economic Development, U.S. Bank and the Piton Foundation are partnering to provide low-income Denver area residents with free, last-minute tax help at the annual Crunch Day event from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 17 at the King Trimble Center. For information, go to DenverABC.org.

• The U. S. Small Business Administration will provide low-interest disaster loans to Colorado residents and businesses affected by the March 28 tornado. For more information call 1-800-659-2955.

• Mary Lou Makepeace, former mayor of Colorado Springs, was honored with the 2007 Athena Award, presented by the greater Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce at the annual Women in Business Conference.

• Bill Barrett Corp., headquartered in Denver, hired R. Scot Woodall as senior vice president, operations.

• Denver-based residential developer MacKenzie House LLC added Robert Garcia as senior vice president, apartments, and Max C. Martin as senior vice president, director of construction management.

• GroundFloor Media Inc., a Denver-based public relations firm, has been hired as the national agency of record for Qdoba Mexican Grill, also headquartered in Denver.

• The South Metro Denver Chamber added Brian Bartony as a marketing and visibility consultant, and Korri Stainbrook as the chamber's major events planner.

• The National Association of Home Builders named four Kephart projects as finalists for the 2007 Best of 50+ Housing Awards, two of which are in the Denver metro area: Lincoln Square Lofts in Lone Tree and One Cherry Lane in Greenwood Village.

• CB Richard Ellis has added Alex Hammerstein as a senior vice president and Marty Knape as a senior associate.

• Broomfield-based Lively Marketing! hired Dominique Leupi as client services manager.

• Keith Thompson was promoted to regional site director of the U.S. Bank call center in Denver.

• Loveland's first Old Chicago has opened at the Marketplace at Centerra.

Rocky staff and wire reports.

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