Business Briefing, April 23

Rocky staff and wire reports

Published April 22, 2008 at 7 p.m.

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NATIONAL

Bank of America plans to change list of mortgage offerings

Bank of America says it will alter its mortgage product menu once it completes its acquisition of mortgage lender Countrywide Financial.

Bank of America says it will offer traditional mortgages that fit government-sponsored enterprise guidelines. It will also offer interest-only fixed-rate and adjustable-rate mortgages that have long reset periods to lessen the likelihood of short-term payment spikes.

The Charlotte, N.C.-based bank will not originate subprime mortgages or loans that allow customers to make payments for less than the monthly interest due.

MOLSON AT OLYMPICS The Olympic organizing committee for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics announced that Molson will be the official beer supplier for the Games in a deal worth $3 million to $15 million, the Canadian Press reported. Molson is the Canadian brewing unit of parent Molson Coors.

EBAY SUES CRAIGSLIST EBay Inc. is filing a lawsuit against Craigslist, alleging the classified site's board unfairly tried to dilute eBay's 28 percent stake in it.

In January, Craigslist's board, consisting of founder Craig Newmark and Chief Executive Jim Buckmaster, unilaterally acted to dilute eBay's economic interest in Craigslist by more than 10 percent, e-Bay said.

LOCAL

Hotel occupancy rates drop in state, but lodging costs rise

Denver-area and Colorado hotel occupancy rates dropped, but average room rates rose in March, according to the latest Rocky Mountain Lodging Report released on Tuesday. The report by Robert S. Benton & Associates showed that the average occupancy rate in March for Denver-area hotels was 62.5 percent, compared with 66.2 percent in March 2007, but the average room rate rose to $111.05 from $106.31.

For the state, the average occupancy rate in March was 62.9 percent, compared with 66.7 percent a year earlier. But the average room rate rose to $150.32 from $140.18.

AVON FIRM IN DEAL Kudelski SA, the world's largest maker of security cards for pay television, is joining with RTP, of Avon, to sell guest management software to hotels and resorts in the U.S.

Kudelski's Salzburg, Austria-based Skidata AG unit will sell the software with closely held RTP, Skidata said.

TREE-PLANTING EVENT Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado will begin planting trees at 8 a.m. Saturday in the Sunnyside neighborhood. Xcel Energy Foundation is co-sponsor of the event, and more than 75 Xcel volunteers will participate. About 500 trees will be planted.

DOE AWARDS GRANT The Department of Energy on Tuesday granted $6.3 million to Fort Collins and a consortium of public and private partners for work on an electricity grid. The grant, coupled with $4.9 million in nonfederal money, will go to the city and several local entities to develop and demonstrate a system to achieve a 20 percent to 30 percent peak load reduction on the grid.

XCEL'S WINDSOURCE CITED Xcel Energy has been ranked by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory as the utility with the No. 1 Green Pricing program in 2007 for Windsource, a voluntary program that allows customers to sign up for wind power. Xcel has more than 75,530 customers participating in Windsource.

ECONOMY

83 commercial banks bid for slice of Fed pie

Battling to relieve stressed credit markets, the Federal Reserve has provided a total of $360 billion in short-term loans to squeezed banks since December to help them overcome credit problems.

The central bank on Tuesday announced the results of its most recent auction - the 10th since the program started in December, where commercial banks bid to get a slice of another $50 billion in the short-term loans.

It's part of an effort by the Fed to help ease the credit crunch, which erupted in August, intensified in December and January and took another turn for the worse in March with the sudden crash of Bear Stearns.

In the latest auction, commercial banks paid an interest rate of 2.870 percent for the loans.

There were 83 bidders for the slice of the $50 billion in 28-day loans. The Fed received bids for $88.3 billion in loans. The auction was conducted Monday. The short-term loans from the Fedhelp banks over the credit hump. A global credit crisis has made banks reluctant to lend to each other, which has crimped lending to individuals and businesses.

THIS JUST IN...

* The Colorado State Patrol received a national award from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for its overall efforts in commercial motor vehicle safety.

* Mark Savit, managing partner in the Denver office of Patton Boggs LLP, was awarded the Daniel C. Jackling Award by the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration.

* BtoB Magazine named 90octane one of the nation's top interactive agencies in its 2008 Top Agencies Special Report.

* The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness awarded Richard E. Schaden, chairman and founder of Consumer Capital Partners and Quiznos, the national Home for Every American Award for his formation of America's Road Home, the first national front to end family homelessness.

* Rocky Mountain Ram, a Boulder-based manufacturer and distributor of computer memory, USB flash drives, computer upgrades, hard drives and security software, partnered with Encryptx Corp., a Broomfield-based company that creates encryption software products for removable storage devices and servers.

* The American Academy of Water Resources Engineers of the American Society of Civil Engineers named Broomfield-based MWH Soft President Paul F. Boulos an honorary diplomate, an award for those who have made significant contributions in water resources engineering.

* Mandil Inc., a Denver-based environmental color, architecture and interior design firm, won the Gold Award for Best Design Center from the National Sales and Marketing Council, a division of the National Association of Home Builders.

* Craig A. Maraschky joined the Aurora Housing Authority as executive director.

* Colorado Capital Bank hired Kenneth Whitelam as senior vice president at the Castle Pines branch.

* Anthony A. Acri and Dale F. Jones joined JR Engineering.

* Plaza Home Mortgage hired Sarah Pratt as regional manager for its Denver branch.

* The Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis Center elected John Epperson, Jamey Mills and Jason Smith to its board of directors.

* The University of Colorado named Frank Bruno vice chancellor for administration.

* CBS4 News won four regional Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio-Television News Directors Association in the Overall Excellence, Best Spot News, Best Investigative Reporting and Best Feature Reporting categories.

* Envysion Inc., a provider of Web-based video management for surveillance and improved business processes, named Bruce Dawson senior vice president of sales and marketing.

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