MORE CATTLE TO CUBA: A shipment of 148 dairy cows will be sent from Jacksonville to Havana this weekend, the second allotment in a deal marking the resumption of the Florida-to-Cuba cattle trade after a hiatus of more than 40 years. The first shipment of 128 Holstein and Jersey dairy cows left Port Everglades on July 30 and arrived in Havana within 24 hours. Late last year, the Cuban government signed contracts to buy 440 cows from four U.S. suppliers for about $1-million. Most of the cattle shipped from Florida were supplied by John Parke Wright, a Naples businessman who has been working on agricultural exports to Cuba since 1999. Wright is a fifth-generation member of Tampa's Lykes family. It was his great-great-great-grandfather Capt. James McKay who started shipping cattle from Florida to Cuba in 1858. The Cuba-bound cattle were quarantined for a week at a state-run farm in Indiantown before shipment.
LIBERTY'S QVC DEAL OKAYED: Liberty Media Corp.'s $7.9-billion purchase of Comcast Corp.'s controlling stake in QVC, the largest home-shopping television network, was cleared by U.S. antitrust authorities, the Federal Trade Commission said. The government's review of the transaction was closed after 30 days, according to a list of completed merger investigations published in Washington by the FTC. Liberty, the media investment company controlled by John Malone, agreed last month to purchase Comcast's 57 percent stake in QVC.
EXECS LIKE OUTLOOK: Of 150 senior executives at large U.S. corporations polled in May and June for PricewaterhouseCoopers' Management Barometer quarterly survey, 63 percent said they were optimistic about the economy, up sharply from 34 percent in the first quarter, the survey showed. Only 26 percent of those surveyed described the economy as growing, while 54 percent said it was stagnant and 20 percent said it was declining. The executives set their average 12-month revenue growth target at 7.1 percent, the same as in the first quarter, the survey showed.
EXPEDIA WELCOMES DILLER: Shareholders of Expedia Inc., the largest Internet travel agency, approved completing the $3.3-billion stock acquisition by Barry Diller's InterActiveCorp. Expedia shareholders will receive 1.94 shares of InterActiveCorp stock for each share they own. The offer had a 30 percent premium to Expedia's share price at the time its board agreed to the purchase in March. InterActiveCorp also includes the Home Shopping Network of St. Petersburg.
BROADCOM PAYS INTEL: Broadcom Corp., the largest maker of chips for cable modems, agreed to pay Intel Corp. $60-million to end three years of patent litigation. Intel, the world's biggest producer of computer chips, and Broadcom also agreed to license each other's technology for the next five years. The two companies had been scheduled to begin a retrial in September of the dispute in which Intel claimed almost every product made by Broadcom infringed on one or more Intel patents. Broadcom denied the allegations.
HACKER HITS DATABASE: A computer hacker gained access to private files affecting about 10 percent of the customers at Acxiom Corp., one of the world's largest consumer database companies, and was able to download sensitive information about some customers of the company's clients, the company said Thursday, adding that it didn't know about the breach until a law enforcement agency from Ohio contacted it last week. Both the hacker and the stolen information are in police custody, Acxiom said. Acxiom's Web site says the company serves 14 of the top 15 credit card companies, seven of the top 10 auto manufacturers and five of the top six retail banks.
BIG MAC'S FLYING: The price of McDonald's Corp. shares surged 8.3 percent Friday on a positive July sales report that suggested the company's turnaround plan is working. The sales report showed McDonald's recorded lower comparable sales at its worldwide restaurants in July but registered an almost 10 percent jump in its U.S. business, helped by the introduction of new breakfast sandwiches and redesigned salads. McDonald's same-store sales - those at restaurants open at least 13 months - rose 4.2 percent overall in July compared to a 3.6 percent decline a year earlier, the company said.
AHOLD REPORTS DROP IN SALES: Dutch grocer and food distributor Ahold said Friday its sales fell 12.4 percent in the second quarter, and the company again postponed publication of its 2002 earnings. Ahold, the world's third-largest retailer, has delayed releasing earnings figures since it shocked the global financial market in February by revealing it overstated earnings by an estimated $856-million in 2001-2002. The company said second quarter sales were euro13-billion ($14.8 billion), down from euro14.8-billion a year earlier, mostly due to a weak dollar.
US AIRWAYS SHARES TRADING: US Airways Group Inc. shares, issued to investors including Alabama's state retirement fund when the carrier exited bankruptcy in April, are trading again. The stock began changing hands under the ticker symbol "USALA" on Tuesday on the over-the-counter bulletin board exchange, with 10,800 shares traded this week. They started trading at $8 a share Tuesday and as high as $26 Wednesday.
ORACLE EXTENDS OFFER: Oracle Corp., the world's third-largest business-software company, extended its hostile bid to buy rival PeopleSoft Inc. until Sept. 19, even as only about 12 percent of PeopleSoft shares had been tendered. The offer to pay $19.50 a share for PeopleSoft had been set to expire on Aug. 15, Oracle said in a statement. As of Friday, 37.7-million shares had been tendered, down from 43.8-million shares tendered as of July 11.
VANGUARD FIRES NEWELL: Vanguard Group, the second-largest U.S. mutual fund company, said it fired Newell Associates as co-manager of its $2.6-billion Vanguard Equity Income Fund. Vanguard will take over part of Newell's 50 percent allocation in the fund, and increase the assets managed by Boston- based Wellington Management Co., spokeswoman Rebecca Cohen said. Newell, headed by Roger Newell, was the original adviser on the fund when it began in 1988. The Equity Income Fund's 8 percent return so far this year lags 93 percent of similar funds, according to Bloomberg News Service data.
ODYSSEY MARINE BUYS SHIP: A subsidiary of Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. purchased a 251-foot ship suitable for deep ocean exploration. Odyssey, a Tampa company that seeks to recover treasure-laden shipwrecks and sell or exhibit the contents, said the Odyssey Explorer will be fit to use by September. Earlier this week, Odyssey said it completed a private placement worth at least $5-million, enabling it to purchase needed equipment.
OHIO SUES FREDDIE MAC: Ohio filed suit Friday against mortgage giant Freddie Mac, accusing the company of misleading accounting practices. State Attorney General Jim Petro is seeking more than $25-million lost by state retirement systems for teachers and public employees. Freddie Mac faces similar lawsuits in Virginia, New York and West Virginia. Freddie Mac spokeswoman Sharon McHale wouldn't comment on the suit.
Earnings
Z-Tel Technologies Inc.: The Tampa phone company reported a steeper net loss in the quarter ended June 30 because revenue from a new partnership with Sprint Corp. didn't ramp up fast enough to make up for the continued decline in fee income from MCI. Z-Tel's net loss excluding items such as dividends on convertible preferred stock was $6-million, or 17 cents a share, compared to year-earlier net income of $259,000 or a penny a share. Operating expenses jumped 24 percent in the June quarter to $75.5-million from $60.9-million a year earlier.
Insurance Management Solutions Group: The spinoff of Bankers Insurance Group of St. Petersburg, which is being bought by Fiserv Inc., swung back to a quarterly profit after significantly shrinking its operation.
MasterCard Inc.: The world's second-biggest credit-card brand said second-quarter profit fell 11 percent as marketing and other expenses rose. Visa USA Inc. and MasterCard in April agreed to a $3-billion settlement of an antitrust lawsuit filed in 1996 by retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Sears, Roebuck & Co., over debit-card fees. In the settlement, MasterCard agreed to pay $125-million this year and $100-million annually from 2004 to 2012.
Bridgestone Corp.: The Japanese tiremaker reported Friday a 31 percent jump in profit for the first six months of the year compared with a year ago as sales grew in Asia and Europe. It also raised its earnings projection for the year. Figures are in yen.
