Business digest

PENNEY DOCUMENTS CEO PAY: Allen Questrom, chairman and chief executive of J.C. Penney Co., received $3.2-million in salary and bonus in 2001. Questrom's salary rose to $1.31-million in 2001 from $481,151 in 2000, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. His 2000 salary payments were lower because he didn't join J.C. Penney until September of that year. J.C. Penney paid Questrom a cash bonus of $1.89-million last year, up from $1.25-million in 2000. He didn't receive any stock compensation last year after getting 1-million restricted shares and options on 3.5-million shares in 2000. J.C. Penney shares rose 14 cents to $21.11.

ANC UNITS TO END SOME COMMISSIONS: ANC Rental Corp. said its Alamo Rent-A-Car and National Car Rental chains will end some commissions to travel agents to save money. Beginning Thursday, Alamo and National will eliminate base commissions paid to travel agents for car rentals on government accounts and individually negotiated corporate accounts. ANC expects the change to save it more than $10-million this year. Hertz Corp. last week became the first U.S. car rental agency to eliminate travel agent commissions for government and corporate rentals.

REBATES TIED TO ERRORS: Confusion over how to handle last year's rebate checks has led to more than 3-million errors on tax returns, accounting for two-thirds of all the mistakes discovered by the Internal Revenue Service. A report from the General Accounting Office indicated that almost 7 percent of the 45.9-million returns processed through March 15 contained errors related to the checks that were part of last year's tax cut. That law enabled people who didn't get a check or failed to get the full amount to claim a credit for their share on this year's tax returns, if they qualify. It is these claims that are causing all the problems.

SOFT LANDING FOR EX-FORD CEO: Ousted Ford Motor Co. president and chief executive Jacques Nasser was paid $4.9-million for 2001 even though he retired under pressure in late October. Nasser's pay included $1.75-million in salary and nearly $3.1-million in other compensation. He also received options to buy 1.375-million shares of common stock, according to a filing made with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Since Nasser retired, and was not fired by the company, he is receiving an annual pension of between $1.6-million and $1.7-million based on his 34 years with the company, a Ford spokesman said. In 2000, Nasser made about $12-million, including a $7.7-million bonus. No executive bonuses were paid in 2001.

TECH PROBLEMS NAG EBAY: EBay Inc.'s U.S. Web site was unable to display some information for about 50 minutes, the third straight day computer systems have malfunctioned at the largest Internet auctioneer. The disruption followed a 12-hour outage for portions of the site Sunday and another malfunction for a little more than hour Monday. EBay has been upgrading computers, programs and other systems to avoid major system failures. Sunday's problem was caused by a corrupted database, while the cause of Monday's outage and Tuesday's problems are still being investigated, the company said.

KMART, PENSKE NEAR SETTLEMENT: Kmart Corp. and Penske Auto Centers LLC are close to a settlement in their dispute over Penske's closure of its auto-service centers, Penske attorney David Lynch said. Kmart filed a lawsuit in response to Penske's announcement that it had closed 563 service centers at Kmart locations. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Susan Pierson Sonderby had issued a temporary restraining order Saturday blocking the closures. A Kmart spokesman declined to comment.

FRONTIER TO OFFER TAMPA-DENVER SERVICE: Frontier Airlines will begin daily service between Tampa and the carrier's Denver hub on June 24. The airline will make one daily nonstop flight each way between the two cities. Introductory fares start at $122 each way. Frontier also will offer introductory fares on connecting flights through Denver to Los Angeles for $132, and to Seattle for $142. The fares are for off-peak, round-trip travel for tickets purchased by April 23. United Airlines offers the only other nonstop service from Tampa to Denver, with two daily flights.

VERIZON TO MISS FORECASTS: Verizon Communications Inc. said it expects first-quarter earnings to fall a penny a share short of Wall Street expectations and said expenses related to investments, among other things, would lower earnings by $2.5-billion. The local and long-distance telephone company said it now anticipates earnings of 72 cents a share, even with year-earlier results. Verizon is slated to release its first-quarter results April 23. Its shares fell $1.51 to $42.70.

TREASURY AUCTION: The interest rate on short-term Treasury securities fell in Tuesday's auction. The Treasury sold $14-billion in four-week bills at a discount rate of 1.68 percent, down from 1.75 percent on March 26. The government received bids for the bills equal to 2.39 times the amount sold, up from 2.11 at the last sale.

AOL CEO STEPPING DOWN: Barry Schuler will step down as chief executive of America Online, to be replaced by Bob Pittman. The switch comes as investors have been disappointed with the performance of the online division, where growth has been slowing from its previous supercharged pace. Revenues from advertising and commerce at AOL fell 7 percent in the fourth quarter. Pittman, who headed AOL before it merged with Time Warner, also will continue in his role as chief operating officer of AOL Time Warner. Schuler will lead a new division charged with developing new digital services for AOL as well as for other parts of AOL Time Warner, including home networking and digital music delivery systems. Schuler's reassignment comes just weeks before AOL Time Warner will formalize other executive changes in its top ranks. Dick Parsons, currently a co-chief operating officer along with Pittman, will take over as chief executive in May from Jerry Levin, who is retiring. AOL Time Warner shares fell 10 cents to $21.85.

MARINEMAX MAKES ACQUISITION: MarineMax Inc., a Clearwater roll-up that bills itself as the country's largest recreational boat retailer, paid about $16-million in cash for Gulfwind Marine Partners Inc. of Sarasota and several affiliates. Gulfwind's sales centers in Sarasota, Venice and Cape Haze will give MarineMax its first presence in those areas; Gulfwind's former owners will stay on to manage them. MarineMax CFO Michael McLamb said Gulfwind had about $60-million in revenues last year, compared with MarineMax's $504-million. The deal is MarineMax's largest acquisition since going public in 1998. Separately, Los Angeles brokerage and investment bank Jefferies & Co. said it is initiating analyst coverage of the company with a "buy" rating. MarineMax's stock closed at $13.20, up 90 cents.

NEW-LOOK JOURNAL APPEARS: The Wall Street Journal debuted its new redesign, which included a new section, added use of color, more graphics and several new columns and features. The changes were made possible by a four-year, $225-million upgrade to the Journal's printing plants, but came in the midst of a severe advertising downturn. Last year the Journal's advertising linage, or volume, fell 38 percent compared with 2000. Tuesday's papers were the first to carry the new look. Peter Kann, the publisher of the Journal, said he hoped the new format would bring in not only new readers, including younger people and more women, but also new advertisers in categories that could be better represented at the paper, including consumer electronics, high-end retail and health care.

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