Business today

FLORIDA JOBLESS RATE FALLS: Florida's unemployment rate in November was 5 percent, down from 5.2 percent in October and 5.6 percent a year ago. In the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater market, unemployment was 4.2 percent compared with 4.5 percent November 2001. The bay area ranked third in the state in job creation in November, behind Miami and West Palm Beach, with 5,900 new jobs. The U.S. unemployment rate for November was 6 percent.

STATE FARM TO INSURE SOME CONDOS: State Farm Insurance has agreed to keep at least 70 percent of its condominium association policies in Florida under a compromise with state regulators reached late Thursday. Florida Insurance Commissioner Tom Gallagher agreed to an average 70 percent increase, although as many as 10 percent of its customers may face triple-digit increases if they want to renew their policies. The insurer, the second-largest writer of condominium association policies in the state, had previously said it would shed all its condominium association policies in the state due to rising costs. Over the past year, it has dropped almost 1,000 of its 4,800 condo policies statewide when they came up for renewal. The company still refuses to write new policies or renew those it has already dropped.

FRANCE FINES SOROS: A French court convicted George Soros of insider trading in a 1980s stock deal and fined him $2.2-million. The American billionaire investor and philanthropist said he was "astounded and dismayed" by Friday's ruling. The fine by the court was in line with the request by prosecutors -- the same amount the Hungarian-born magnate was accused of having made from buying stocks at French bank Societe Generale with insider knowledge 14 years ago. Soros, the 72-year-old president of Soros Fund Management, said he would appeal "to the highest level necessary."

US AIRWAYS, UNIONS AGREE: After three weeks of tough negotiations to wrest $200 million in union concessions, US Airways reached tentative deals late Friday with the last of its four major unions. The airline announced agreements with its mechanics and fleet service workers, represented by the International Association of Machinists, and with the Association of Flight Attendants. Members must vote on the deals. With the agreements, the airline -- which is operating under bankruptcy court protection -- was expected to file its reorganization plan late Friday or early today.

ECONOMIC GROWTH CONFIRMED: The U.S. economy grew at a healthy 4 percent rate from July through September, the government said Friday, but analysts remained concerned that rising unemployment and weak consumer spending will trim growth to just half that amount in the current quarter. The Commerce Department's final estimate of activity in July-September showed no change in the overall figure from the figure released a month ago, although individual components of growth shifted slightly. Consumer spending rose at an even-faster 4.2 percent rate with purchases of big-ticket items such as cars surging ahead 22.8 percent, reflecting cut-rate financing offers.

$3.5-BILLION JUDGMENT REJECTED: The Alabama state Supreme Court reversed a record $3.5-billion judgment against Exxon Mobil Corp. on Friday, ruling in a gas royalty dispute that a confidential legal opinion written for the energy giant should never have been admitted as evidence. The ruling did not address the size of the judgment, which Exxon argued in its appeal from Montgomery County circuit court was excessive and unwarranted. But it reversed the judgment and sent the case back for a possible retrial.

TECO SELLS ASSETS: TECO Energy Inc. said Friday that it completed the sale of most of the Alabama assets of its TECO Coalbed Methane subsidiary to Municipal Gas Authority of Georgia for $140-million. Of the sale price, $42-million was paid upon closing, with the remaining $98-million to be paid in early 2003. With the sale, the Tampa utility said it has now secured more than two-thirds of the $900-million it said in September it would raise as part of a financial plan to protect the company's bottom line from further fallout related to its struggling wholesale power business. TECO's shares closed Friday at $15.30, down 13 cents.

SYKES CENTER SALE FALLS THROUGH: The town of Eveleth, Minn., suffered another setback this week when a deal fell through that would have reopened the call center that Sykes Enterprises of Tampa closed this month after only 21/2 years in operation. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota was going to buy the facility for $3.5-million. Spokeswoman Jan Hennings said her company was concerned about the building's roof and wanted several extra days to examine it, but Sykes declined. Sykes chief financial officer Mike Kipphut said his company had already allowed Blue Cross several extentions during three months of negotiations and had passed up other sales opportunities in order to leave the community with relatively high-paying jobs at Blue Cross. "Everybody loses on this," Kipphut said.

SEC SCRUTINIZES HALLIBURTON: Halliburton Co. is the target of a formal Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry into accounting for cost overruns on construction jobs beginning in 1998, when now-U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney ran the company. A formal inquiry gives regulators the power to subpoena individuals and documents. The world's No. 2 oil-services company believes the case is a step closer to being resolved, spokeswoman Wendy Hall said. Cheney hasn't been contacted about the investigation, said Jennifer Millerwise, his press secretary.

NIKE SPAT HURTS FOOT LOCKER SHARES: Mark Parker, Nike Inc. brand co-president, announced Thursday that Foot Locker Inc. will "no longer be a primary distribution channel for our elite and performance product," effective February. Foot Locker will continue to sell Nike products, but not key, coveted footwear. Analysts called Nike's decision a major blow to Foot Locker. Shares of Foot Locker tumbled Friday, closing at $10.48 on the New York Stock Exchange, down $1.19, or 10 percent.

EBAY OFFICIAL LEAVES BANK BOARD: Meg Whitman, the chief executive of eBay Inc., has resigned from the board of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. after questions arose about the propriety of lucrative initial public offerings she got from the investment bank, which also provides financial services to eBay. Congressional investigators disclosed in October that Goldman Sachs offered hot IPO shares to executives of at least 20 companies that did investment banking business with Goldman, and the executives often quickly sold the shares for big profits. Whitman was among the biggest beneficiaries, receiving stock in more than 100 Goldman-managed IPOs.

BAYER SETS ASIDE MONEY FOR SETTLEMENT: German drugmaker Bayer said Friday that it has set aside $257.2-million to settle allegations that it underpaid rebates for pharmaceutical products under a U.S. health care plan for the poor. The company said it had reached an agreement "in principle" on the terms of the settlement with the U.S. attorney's office for the District of Massachusetts.

HOUSEHOLD CHIEF TO GET $21-MILLION BONUS: HSBC Holdings Plc will pay a bonus of as much as $21-million to Household International Inc.'s William Aldinger, who sold the consumer lender to HSBC after Household shares plunged 61 percent this year. Aldinger, Household's chief executive since 1994, will get $10-million of HSBC stock as a "one-time special retention grant" within 30 days after the $15.5-billion purchase is completed, Britain's biggest bank said a regulatory filing. He will get an additional $5.5-million in stock on the first and the second anniversary of the completion.

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