Business Today

CATALINA SIGNS JAPAN DEAL: Catalina Marketing Corp. of St. Petersburg said it signed a deal to handle the loyalty marketing programs for 174 Ito Yokado stores in Japan. Ito Yokado, which owns 7-Eleven worldwide, is one of Japan's biggest retailers. Catalina, which maintains equipment that uses laser scanner technology to print coupons in retail checkout lines, now has systems installed in 3,291 retail stores in Europe and Japan.

TYCO SUES FORMER OFFICERS: Tyco International sued former chief executive Dennis Kozlowski and ex-chief financial officer Mark Swartz, seeking to recover $40-million in their "short-swing" trading profits on company stock. Tyco says Kozlowski and Swartz violated a federal rule that requires insiders who buy and later sell company stock within a six-month period to relinquish their trading profits. Kozlowski and Swartz already are battling state criminal charges in New York that they engaged in a $600-million theft and fraud scheme.

KMART TO RESTATE RESULTS: Kmart Corp. will restate financial results for at least three years because of errors found during an internal review of accounting practices. The discount retailer will make adjustments for some leases, the accounting of inventory and transactions with suppliers. The changes will decrease the company's loss by $100-million in the six months ended July 31, Kmart said in a statement. Kmart is investigating events that helped push the company into bankruptcy in January.

FORMER PSYCHIC FRIENDS OWNERS SETTLE CHARGES: Four former executives of a defunct company that once owned Dionne Warwick's Psychic Friends Network have settled financial fraud charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC said officers of Regal Communications inflated the company's worth to defraud investors in the early 1990s. The SEC ordered the executives to pay back "ill-gotten gains," amounting to about $2.2-million. It also barred two officers from serving as officers of any public company and barred Regal's former in-house lawyer from representing companies before the SEC.

DISNEY PUTS OFF CHINA PARK PLANS: The Walt Disney Co. said it won't build a park in mainland China until at least 2010 after Shanghai signed a deal to open a Universal Studios theme park in 2006. Disney had been in talks with Shanghai, the mainland's wealthiest city, but said it will now keep its sights set on the Hong Kong park, which is to break ground Jan. 12 and is scheduled to open in 2005-2006.

BUYOUT FIRM TO BUY AMERIPATH: AmeriPath Inc., a medical-testing services company in Riviera Beach, agreed to be purchased by buyout firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe for about $839.4-million in cash and assumed debt. Investors in AmeriPath will get $21.25 in cash for each share held, or 29 percent more than the stock's closing price of $16.45 Friday, the company said. Welsh Carson will assume about $172-million in debt. The board of AmeriPath has unanimously approved the transaction, which is expected to close before April 30.

TRAVELOCITY TO ADD FEE: Travelocity.com said it will charge customers a booking fee of up to $5 for most of the airline tickets purchased on the site starting next year. Travelocity follows the lead of other Internet travel sites.

TREASURY AUCTION: Interest rates on short-term Treasury securities fell in Monday's auction. The Treasury Department sold $14-billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 1.195 percent, down from 1.210 percent last week. An additional $15-billion was sold in six-month bills at a rate of 1.245 percent, down from 1.290 percent. The new discount rates understate the actual return to investors -- 1.215 percent for three-month bills and 1.269 percent for six-month bills. In a separate report, the Federal Reserve said the average yield for one-year constant maturity Treasury bills dipped to 1.53 percent last week from 1.55 percent the previous week.

Albertson's Inc.

The supermarket chain said earnings rose 9.1 percent for the quarter ended Oct. 31 as it cut prices to win back shoppers from discount retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

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