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OCCUPANCY RATE TICKS UP: The hotel business in the Tampa Bay area improved a bit in August compared to the same month a year ago but still was pretty weak, according to Smith Travel Research. The occupancy rate increased 3 percent to 58.5 percent and revenue per available room rose 3.5 percent. Nationally, the final month of summer vacation season found the hotel occupancy rate up slightly to 67.9 percent and revenue available room up 0.1 percent.
ERNST & YOUNG QUITS NICHOLAS: Nicholas Financial learned Tuesday that its auditing firm of 10 years, Ernst & Young, will resign after it finishes reviewing the Clearwater car finance company's financial statements for the quarter ending Sept. 30. Like other major accounting firms, Ernst & Young is focusing on larger clients and is moving away from the financial services industry, said Nicholas Financial spokesman Ralph Finkenbrink. The company, which says it has had no financial disagreements with Ernst & Young recently, is in the process of selecting a new auditor.
OMEGA EXECUTIVES PROFIT: The two top executives of Omega Insurance Services Inc. received nearly 600,000 shares of First Advantage Corp. worth about $10-million when the St. Petersburg background screening company bought Omega on Sept. 10. The total acquisition cost, which was a combination of cash and stock, has not been disclosed. Timothy Fargo, president and founder of Omega, an insurance investigation company, received 458,614 shares; on Oct. 1, he sold 258,600 shares for about $4-million. Richard Taffet, Fargo's vice president, received 131,016 shares. Both Fargo and Taffet remain with First Advantage's Omega division.
BANK ONE SUES 5: A unit of Bank One Corp. has filed a lawsuit in Cook County, Ill., Circuit Court alleging that five former employees took confidential information on wealthy clients when they left for new jobs with Smith Barney. The lawsuit also accuses Smith Barney of raiding Bank One Securities Corp.'s Chicago office and taking part in actions that are "reckless, willful, conspiratorial and malicious." Named in the suit are former Bank One investment specialists William Strnad, Alicia Alvarez and Bruce Berger, former client adviser John Attard and former investment assistant Qui Lam.
GRASSO PRESSURED FIRM: Ousted New York Stock Exchange chairman Richard Grasso pressured a floor-trading firm to buy more shares in American International Group Inc. after the insurer's chairman complained to him, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. Grasso applied the pressure after receiving written complaints from AIG chairman Maurice Greenberg, a former NYSE director who helped determine Grasso's $187.5-million pay package.
CONSORTIUM GETS PILLOWTEX: Pillowtex Corp., the bankrupt maker of Royal Velvet and Fieldcrest linens, is being sold to investment consortium GGST LLC for $128-million. GGST, which first offered $56-million, was the winning bidder for the North Carolina company at an auction Thursday in New York. The transaction is subject to bankruptcy court approval.
CZECH FINANCIER INDICTED: A fugitive Czech financier who has fled to the Bahamas has been charged with stealing $182-million from clients of a New York City hedge fund, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said. Viktor Kozeny stole the money from 15 investment funds managed by Omega Advisors, an indictment handed up Thursday alleges. It charges Kozeny with first degree grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.
MERRILL LYNCH FIRES 3: Merrill Lynch & Co. fired three brokers in New Jersey for enabling traders at the Millennium Partners LP hedge fund to profit from mutual fund prices that weren't available to all investors, Bloomberg News quoted a source as saying. Merrill dismissed the brokers, who worked at the firm since January 2002, for letting the Millennium traders time their purchases, a violation of Merrill policy, the anonymous source said. The source declined to name the brokers.
BLUE BIRD CUTS 750 JOBS: Blue Bird Corp., a maker of school buses, commercial buses and Wanderlodge motor coaches, is cutting 750 jobs in Georgia. The job reductions - 450 immediately in Fort Valley and 300 by April in Lafayette - come as part of Blue Bird's $12-million investment to modernize the two plants. Both facilities are being refitted with new assembly lines, expected to be in operation by next spring.
STEWART PROSECUTOR NOMINATED: The New York prosecutor overseeing the Martha Stewart stock case will be nominated for the No. 2 position in the Justice Department, the White House announced Friday. James Comey, currently U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, has been tapped to become deputy attorney general under John Ashcroft. Comey said he was "grateful that the president intends to nominate me for this position." Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, quickly praised the selection, calling him "a class-A prosecutor."
BIOTECH IN FLORIDA?: A California biotech company is looking to expand in Florida and could bring hundreds of high-paying jobs to the state, Tom O'Neal, director of sponsored research at the University of Central Florida, said Friday. The company is one of several Gov. Jeb Bush and economic development officials are trying to lure to Florida. An announcement could be made within days, O'Neal said, adding that "it's not a done deal but it's ours to lose." He declined to identify the company.
BID FOR TAUBMAN EXTENDED: Simon Property Group Inc., the world's largest mall owner, and Westfield America Inc. extended their hostile takeover attempt of Taubman Centers Inc. It was at least the fourth time the offer has been extended. The $20-a-share all-cash offer for Taubman Centers will expire at midnight Oct. 31, the companies said in a statement on the Simon Property Web site. All three companies have properties in the Tampa Bay area.
INVESTMENT BANKER ARRESTED: Dan Rubin, a 31-year-old investment banker who once ran for mayor in Lake Helen, Fla., has been arrested on charges that he and three other men falsely inflated the value of stock in two companies. An affidavit filed by Brooklyn federal prosecutors charges that Rubin, of Rubin Investment Group, and three other men artificially increased the value of stock in Classica Group Inc. and Marx Toys & Entertainment Group by $5-million to $6-million. Rubin was arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and was released on $1-million bond.
QHOSTS ATTACKS EXPLORER: Microsoft Corp.'s Internet-browser software Internet Explorer is being targeted by a malicious program named QHosts that tries to take control of a computer's ability to look up Web addresses, antivirus software companies Symantec Corp. and Network Associates Inc. said on their Web sites. QHosts will install itself on a computer when a user views a Web site that has the program and clicks on a pop-up box, the companies said. It exploits a vulnerability in the browser disclosed by Microsoft.
OPTIONS HOLDERS SUE TYCO: Tyco International Ltd. has been sued in Manhattan federal court for securities fraud by two former executives of U.S. Surgical Corp. who received Tyco stock options when the conglomerate bought the company in 1998. Jeffrey B. Sciallo, who was U.S. Surgical's treasurer, and Joseph Scherpf, who was its controller, cite in their case Tyco's public acknowledgment of accounting chicanery, which has led to earnings restatements going back to 1998.