Business Briefing, Aug. 12

Rocky staff and wire reports

Published August 11, 2008 at 9:05 p.m.

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NATIONAL

Magazine newsstand sales decline in first half of 2008

Newsstand sales of U.S. magazines fell 6.3 percent in the first half of 2008, an industry group said Monday, as rising gas and food costs led consumers to cut back on nonessential spending.

Most top titles, including best- selling Cosmopolitan and O, The Oprah Magazine, had sharp declines. Of the top 10 sellers, only People, the entertainment news magazine, and In Style posted gains.

Overall magazine circulation, which includes subscription and newsstand sales, was flat at 349.9 million copies, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported.

IAC/INTERACTIVECORP Internet conglomerate IAC/InterActive- Corp said Monday its plan to split into five parts is set to be completed Aug. 21, and regular trading of all the companies will start that day.

IAC said it was advised by the Nasdaq Stock Market that "when issued" trading of the new individual companies - home shopping network HSN Inc., time-share business Interval Leisure Group Inc., ticketing service Ticketmaster, lending and real estate business Tree.com Inc. - will start today.

ACQUISITION Return Path Inc., an e-mail services company with offices in Superior, is buying its closely held Silicon Valley-based competitor, Habeas Inc.

Terms weren't disclosed. Return Path is based in New York and employs 150. The company's Superior work force totals 100.

Return Path plans to move to new offices in Broomfield in the fall, according to a spokesman.

GMAIL OUTAGE Google Inc., owner of the most-used Internet search engine, said Monday its Gmail e-mail service was having a temporary outage.

"Our engineers are working to resolve this issue," said a message to some users when they tried to access their accounts.

Searchengineland.com reported Monday that users were complaining that they couldn't access their accounts.

CHRYSLER WORKWEEK Chrysler soon will begin talks with the United Auto Workers union about moving some plants to a four-day workweek of 10-hour days, a spokesman for the automaker said Monday. Spokesman Ed Saenz said the company will broker the idea of switching from five eight-hour days to union leaders at 12 U.S. factories.

DISNEY LABS Walt Disney Co. is joining with two universities to do computer science and technology research for its film, television and resort businesses.

The company said it will open labs with Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

LOCAL

Dish Network gets $1.2 million in civil fraud case

Dish Network said Monday it has received $1.24 million in restitution in a civil fraud case against former retailer Satellites & More of Santa Ana, Calif. The satellite TV provider alleged the retailer, Joseph Masek, falsified information to obtain new customer account incentives.

Dish said Masek separately pleaded guilty to a wire fraud charge and was sentenced Friday to 33 months in prison and ordered to pay an additional $663,000 in restitution.

REAL ESTATE MERGER Boulder's Goodacre & Co. and Meridian Properties Inc. - which together over the past five years have accounted for 74 of Boulder's 183 residential transactions above the $1.5 million mark - are joining forces.

They will be combined under the Goodacre name.

ECONOMY

More banks tightening lending standards

More banks are tightening lending standards on home mortgages and other consumer and business loans as the deepening credit crisis exerts a heavier toll on the economy.

The Federal Reserve said Monday the percentage of banks reporting tighter lending standards rose across various loan types in its July survey. In April, the central bank had found that the percentage of banks reporting tighter lending standards was already near historic highs.

The new survey, conducted in early July, found that about 75 percent of the banks surveyed indicated they had tightened lending standards for prime mortgages, up from about 60 percent in the previous survey.

The Fed's July survey covered 50 banks which hold about 80 percent of the residential mortgages on the books of all commercial banks.

Out of this group of 50 banks, 32 said they were still originating so-called nontraditional home mortgages. Among these 32 banks, about 85 percent said they had tightened their lending standards, up from 75 percent who said they were tightening lending standards for nontraditional mortgages in the April survey.

* First American State Bank appointed Walter F. Imhoff to its board of directors.

* The Colorado Health Foundation added John Hughes of Clifton Gunderson LLP and Ruth Nauts of Kaiser Permanente to its board of directors.

* The Denver Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners gave Patricia Kurgan the Member of the Year Award, Sherry Comes the Jean Yancey Small Business Award and Diane Gibson the Jean Yancey Large Business Award.

* The Colorado Black Chamber of Commerce will host its annual Entrepreneur of the Year awards and dinner at 6 p.m. Oct. 24 at the Marriott City Center Hotel in Denver. Information: 303-831-0720

* New West Physicians added Laura Jarrell to its Lakewood Internal Medicine team.

* Chase Oriental Rug Co. of Steamboat changed its name to David Chase Rugs & Furniture.

* Shoe Carnival opened a store at The Marketplace at Centerra in Loveland.

* Russell Pickering was named a senior associate at Terracon.

* Z-Axis hired Nicole Rullet as a trial consultant in Denver.

* Kephart moved its office to 2555 Walnut St. in Denver.

* Voices For Children added Liz Ryan to its board of directors.

* MountainView Capital Holdings LLC hired Brent Giese as a managing director.

* Reliant Healthcare Professionals Inc. named Ray Marcy as executive chairman, investor and a member of its board of directors.

* Vladimir Jones promoted Karen Hart to director of quantitative insight and Mimi Wheeler to director of qualitative insight.

* Don Chambliss, Eric Kimmelshue and Will Valkner of Adolf son & Peterson Construction received LEED Accreditation.

* Members Federal Credit Union hired Anthony Sammoury as lending manager and Sasha Starley as teller supervisor.

* The Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis Center elected Ben Gelt to its board of directors.

* Warren Federal Credit Union opened its first Colorado branch at 7670 Fifth St. in Wellington.

* The Credit Union Foundation of Colorado and Wyoming awarded Ericca McCutchen the 2008 Brayman-Beach $5,000 scholarship.

* The JW Marriott Denver at Cherry Creek was named the top JW Marriott property in North America in overall guest satisfaction for the first half of 2008.

* Broomfield-based MWH named Gary Carlson global vice president of human resources.

* Carol Ann Wilson was awarded the Pioneering Award by the Association of Divorce Financial Planners.

* Porter Adventist Hospital appointed Steve Chen as chief financial officer.

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