By Compiled from Times wires
Published July 2, 2003
MANUFACTURING STILL SLOW: Defying expectations of a quickening economic recovery, manufacturing activity continued to shrink in June and construction spending dropped in May by the largest amount in a year. The Institute for Supply Management said its widely watched manufacturing index was at 49.8 last month, up from 49.4 in May. It was the fourth month in a row the index had failed to reach the break-even point. Economists had expected a reading of 51.
CONSTRUCTION VALUE DROPS: The seasonally adjusted annual value of construction projects under way in May was $869.8-billion, a 1.7 percent decline from April, the Commerce Department reported. Analysts had on average forecast a 0.3 percent increase. Although rainy weather played a role in May's decline, it still marked the third straight month that construction spending fell. The weakness was broadly based, with private builders cutting back spending on residential projects as well as commercial ventures. Spending on public works projects declined to its lowest level in nearly a year.
HCA SETTLEMENT OKAYED: HCA Inc. said the U.S. District Court in Washington has approved a settlement reached last week by the hospital company and the Department of Justice. The move finalizes a plan announced in December under which HCA will pay Justice $631-million plus interest by July 8 to settle litigation regarding cost reports and physician relations. HCA, the nation's largest hospital chain with nine hospitals in the Tampa Bay area, also said it has paid the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services $250-million, as previously announced, to settle all outstanding Medicare cost reports, home office costs and appeal issues. With these two payments, the government's investigation into HCA, which became public in 1997, will be closed.
SHELLS NAMES CEO: Shells Seafood Restaurants Inc. of Tampa has named Leslie Christon as chief executive and president of the 28-restaurant chain. She will begin Monday. Christon replaces David Head, who resigned in early June. She has been president and chief operating officer of Sutton Place Gourmet Inc. and president of On the Border Restaurants, part of the Brinker International chain.
FORTUNE SMILES ON FIRM: American Land Lease of Clearwater has been named No. 36 on Fortune magazine's list of the nation's top 100 small businesses. The company holds interest in 28 manufactured home communities that Fortune describes as "one giant step up from trailer parks - a few even have golf courses." American Land Lease is a real estate investment trust; on Tuesday it also said it has been added to the Russell 2000 Index, which measures the performance of 2,000 small-cap company stocks.
ALLIANT GETS CONTRACT: Alliant Defense Electronics Systems Inc. in Clearwater has received a $15.4-million defense contract to upgrade sensors on AAR-47(V)2 missile warning systems for the Navy, Air Force, Army and the United Kingdom. Work is expected to be completed by March 2006.
SWANSON RISES AT RAYTHEON: U.S. defense contractor Raytheon Co. said president William Swanson has moved up to chief executive. Raytheon had announced in April that Daniel Burnham, 56, would be succeeded by Swanson, 54. Swanson has been with Raytheon for almost 31 years, holding such posts as chairman and CEO of Raytheon Systems Co. and senior vice president and general manager of Raytheon's Missile Systems unit.
IPO COMPLETED: First Community Bank Corp. of America completed its initial public offering last week, selling 570,000 shares of common stock at $14 a share. First Community, headquartered in Pinellas Park, is a savings and loan holding company formed in 1995. It has two branches in Pinellas County and one in Charlotte County and a loan production office in Sarasota County. The proceeds from the offering will be used to reduce debt, improve technology and add offices. The company is applying for a Nasdaq SmallCap listing. Kendrick, Pierce Securities Inc., an investment bank in Tampa, was sales agent for the offering.
J.D. EDWARDS TAKEOVER CLEARED: PeopleSoft Corp., which is fighting Oracle Corp.'s $6.3-billion hostile takeover bid, will be able to complete its purchase of J.D. Edwards & Co. by July 17 after a hearing on an Oracle lawsuit that could have blocked the deal was postponed. An Oracle lawsuit over PeopleSoft's so-called "poison pill" was delayed until at least July 25 by a judge in Wilmington, Del. The postponement means the Oracle suit is no longer an "impediment" to completing the $1.75-billion merger between PeopleSoft and Edwards, said Victor Chayet, a spokesman for Edwards.
AHOLD ENDS REVIEW: The Dutch food retailer Royal Ahold said it has discovered $84.4-million more in accounting irregularities, closing out a four-month accounting investigation that details 970-million euros, or $1.1-billion, worth of suspected fraud. The end of the review means the Dutch retailer may be able to publish audited accounts by Aug. 15, the deadline for keeping open access to 2.65-billion euros in bank loans. The company would not say where the latest irregularities occurred, but analysts said they did not think they were at Ahold's U.S. Foodservice subsidiary, which was at the center of the current scandal.
VIVENDI REJECTS DAVIS: French media giant Vivendi Universal winnowed down a list of bidders for its U.S. entertainment assets Tuesday, striking tycoon Marvin Davis from the applicant pool for the Universal film studio, its related theme parks and the USA and Sci-Fi cable networks, the Associated Press reported. Liberty Media Corp., General Electric Co.'s NBC, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., Viacom Inc. and an investor group led by tycoon Edgar Bronfman Jr. were the remaining bidders, the AP said.
GM, CHRYSLER SELLS MORE: General Motors Corp. and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group said Tuesday their sales grew in June, while Ford Motor Co.'s volume was off slightly. Yet all the American automakers painted an optimistic picture for the rest of the year. Nissan North America and Toyota Motor Sales USA both had double-digit sales gains in June compared with the year-ago period, and Mitsubishi Motors North America and American Honda Motor Co. weren't far behind. Together, Detroit's Big Three saw their sales fall 4.1 percent in the first half of the year, while Asian automakers' U.S. sales rose 2.2 percent.
LAW CUTS NUMBERS: Florida merchants eventually will be required to print receipts that show only part of a customer's credit card number under a new law that went into effect Tuesday with the aim of cutting identity theft. The law currently applies only after merchants buy new equipment. But by July 1, 2005, all businesses will need cash registers that print receipts without the customer's full card number.
VERIZON LISTS CHARGES: Verizon Communications Inc. is taking charges of up to $3-billion, but the huge phone company said Tuesday the charges will not affect its full-year forecast for adjusted earnings and revenue growth. Verizon said the largest charge, of $1.6-billion, or 59 cents per share, is for accounting changes at its phone book publication unit. It expects a second-quarter after-tax charge of $900-million, or 33 cents per share, related to the previously announced sale of its 39.4 percent stake in Mexican wireless carrier Grupo Iusacell.
TOP-FLITE DEAL ASSISTED: Spalding Holdings Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection to ease the sale of its Top-Flite golf ball unit to Callaway Golf Co., the world's largest maker of golf clubs, for $125-million. Callaway, maker of Big Bertha, Odyssey and Steelhead golf clubs, said the acquisition of Top-Flite will give it access to the market for lower and mid-price clubs. The sale, which is subject to bankruptcy court approval and higher bids, is expected to close within 90 days.
FLIGHT ATTENDANTS LAID OFF: American Airlines began laying off more than 3,100 flight attendants Tuesday after a federal judge turned aside a union's bid to block the job losses. More than half the workers who lost their jobs had worked for Trans World Airlines before American parent AMR Corp. bought TWA out of bankruptcy in 2001.
FOUR-WEEK BILLS RISE: The U.S. Treasury sold $17-billion in four-week bills at a discount rate of 0.860 percent, up from a record low of 0.800 percent last week. The return to investors was 0.876 percent for the bills, with a $10,000 bill selling for $9,993.30.
AIRLINES SELL WORLDSPAN: Delta, Northwest and American airlines said Tuesday they are getting a total of $745-million in cash immediately for the sale of their joint interest in ticket processor Worldspan of Atlanta. The sale to Travel Transaction Processing Corp. was first announced in March, but terms were not disclosed at the time. Travel Transaction Processing is a new company formed by Citigroup Venture Capital Equity Partners LP and Toronto's Teachers' Merchant Bank.
