Business briefs, September 6

Published September 6, 2007 at midnight

Text size

More More Business

NATIONAL

Palm Inc. dumps plan to introduce smart-phone pal

Palm Inc. has canceled plans to release a laptoplike gadget that was supposed to serve as a smart-phone companion, months after the product was announced and ridiculed by analysts.

The Foleo, which had been slated to ship this summer, looked like a small notebook PC with a 10-inch screen, full-size keyboard and Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capabilities. It ran on a version of the Linux operating system and did not have a hard drive.

REVERSE STOCK SPLIT Sun Microsystems Inc. intends to pull off a 1-for-4 reverse stock split to boost its share price and improve perceptions of the computing company's recent turnaround, its top two executives told analysts Wednesday.

JOB CUTS Struggling mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. said Wednesday it will cut about 900 more jobs nationwide, primarily from its mortgage production divisions.

The cuts followed the elimination of about 500 positions last month.

TECH MAGAZINE DIES Time Inc. is closing high-tech magazine Business 2.0, abandoning efforts to salvage a publication that survived the dot-com bust only to be doomed by the rise of Internet advertising.

LOCAL

6.4 percent stake in Ball Corp. traded in one transaction

Ball Corp. shares valued at $341.3 million and amounting to a 6.4 percent stake in the maker of recyclable aluminum cans were traded Wednesday in one transaction.

The block trade amounted to 6.52 million shares of the Broomfield-based company's outstanding stock, Only two shareholders, Janus Capital Group Inc. and Lord Abbett & Co., own that much.

FRONTIER UPBEAT Frontier Airlines said Wednesday that revenue passenger miles increased 23.6 percent to 955,567,000 for August from the same period last year, and available seat miles were up 11.9 percent to 1,098,043,000 from the same period last year, according to preliminary results.

This resulted in a record load factor for August of 87.0 percent, an increase of 8.2 points from August 2006.

The airline carried 1,012,626 passengers during August, a 21.0 percent increase from August 2006.

CONTRACT AMENDED MWH, the global environmental engineering firm based in Broomfield, announced that it has received a $32 million contract amendment for its program management work on the Acceler8 Program, part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan in Florida. The contract has a total value of $85 million.

VOICE-ACTIVATED SEARCH Dex has launched a voice-activated business-search service as a trial in Denver and three other cities. The free service, 1-800-CallDex, is designed to enable callers to locate a business and additional information such as its phone number and hours of operation.

VAIL WEB SITE Two veteran Vail Valley journalists and avid skiers launched a Web site called realvail.com, an online journal aimed at second homeowners and visitors who want to stay in touch with the area.

David O. Williams and Tom Boyd, former editors of the Vail Trail and longtime local writers, will provide readers with daily ski blogs about snow conditions, weather, news and events.

CROCS DROPS Crocs Inc., the maker of colorful casual footwear, dropped the most in almost a month in New York trading after the shoemaker said gross profit margins will fall to the mid-50 percent range.

Crocs shares declined $3.53, or 5.9 percent, to $55.93.

ECONOMY

U.S. economic growth seen losing ground

The U.S. economy will slow sharply this year and fall behind growth rates in most of the world, according to forecasts in a U.N. report released Wednesday.

Woes in the housing market will drag U.S. gross domestic product for 2007 to a modest 2 percent growth, compared with 3.3 percent last year, the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development said in its flagship annual report.

For the first time since 2001, both the European Union, at 2.8 percent, and Japan, 2.3 percent, are predicted to have higher GDP growth than the United States.

China, at 10.5 percent, and India, 8.5 percent, should experience economic growth rates similar to the past three years.

• Companies in the U.S. added the fewest jobs in August since June 2003, a private report based on payroll data showed Wednesday.

The 38,000 increase was less than forecast and followed a revised gain of 41,000 for the prior month that was smaller than previously estimated, ADP Employer Services said.

Hiring may weaken as the prolonged housing slump and higher credit costs take a toll on growth, economists said.

THIS JUST IN...

• Gary Lutz was named executive vice president and senior regional manager for Wells Fargo Private Bank in Colorado.

• Denver Health added seven physicians to its faculty who also have teaching appointments at the University of Colorado, School of Medicine. Rebecca Allyn, hospitalist; Meredith Johnson joined the OB/GYN department; Tuan Le, pathologist; Vignesh Narayanan, hospitalist; Ana Oton, hematologist; Jeffrey Sirota, hospitalist; and Ryan Westergaard, hospitalist.

• Nolte Associates Inc. named Todd Beers group director of survey for its Denver survey teams.

• Michelle A. Pinkowski, Ryan E. Warren and Michael P. Dulin have joined the litigation group at Hensley Kim & Holzer LLC.

• Aspen-based public relations firm Promo Communications added Campbell Levy as public relations manager and Chelsea VanVleet as public relations coordinator.

• Denver-based Quark Inc. hired Mark Benfer as senior vice president of sales for North America. The company's creative director, Matt Bargell, was selected to volunteer as mentorship director for AIGA Colorado, the statewide chapter of the professional association for design.

• Steve Krizman has been selected to oversee a consolidated and integrated communications office at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center.

• Hutton Ford Architects has become Hutton Architecture Studio. The firm also moved to 70 Broadway, Suite 300, Denver.

• The Art Directors Club of Denver, a nonprofit, creative organization that promotes multidisciplinary collaboration, has selected its 2007-08 executive committee. James Pelz of the Integer Group, president; Chris Thomas of Ripcord, vice president; Stephanie Fay of Ripcord, secretary and FAC Committee chairwoman; Jimmy Diffee of the Bokka Group, chairman; and Jonathan Pite of Pite Creative was elected to the advisory board.

• Colorado Springs-based El Pomar Foundation added Terrance McWilliams, former command sergeant major at Fort Carson, as director of military support.

• University of Denver graduate Rob Hybiak received the Elijah Watt Sells Award from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants for outstanding performance on the Uniform CPA Examination.

Rocky staff and wire reports

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News