ECKERD STATUS STILL UNCERTAIN: J.C. Penney Co. Inc. confirmed in a statement Friday that the company is in "the early stages" of talking to a "number" of potential bidders for its Eckerd Corp. drugstore unit. Penney is gathering information to decide by the end of the fiscal year whether to keep the drugstore unit or merge, spin off or sell it. "There's really nothing new here," said Penney spokesman Wynn Watkins, "We decided to put out a statement to clarify because we continue getting calls suggesting we are selling Eckerd when we have not made that decision yet." Penney hired investment bankers to drum up indications of interest from prospective bidders for all or part of Eckerd, the Largo chain that is the nation's fourth-largest drugstore chain with 2,700 stores. CVS Corp., which is interested mainly in Eckerd's 1,100 stores in Florida, Texas and Louisiana, has teamed with New York investment house Blackstone Group. Jean Coutu Group, a Canadian drugstore franchisor, is interested in stores in the Midwest and Northeast. Coutu is reportedly teamed with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., a New York investment company. There may be more suitors before the process ends.
DISCOUNT CARRIERS' STOCK FALLS: The stocks of discount airlines skidded Friday after Southwest Airlines Co. and JetBlue Airways Corp. issued end-of-year warnings. The Dow Jones index of airline stocks ended the day down 6.5 percent, compared with a 0.7 percent decline for the Dow Jones industrial average. JetBlue said Friday that November traffic increased 57.6 percent but reduced its forecast for fourth quarter operating margins as added capacity hurt average fares. Thursday, Southwest warned that the percentage of seats filled in December could fall below last year's level of 66 percent. The company also said it continues to be hurt by high energy costs.
WAL-MART BUMPS ROOMS TO GO: Just when it seemed Wal-Mart could conquer no new ground, the company has emerged as the No. furniture retailer. Wal-Mart's $1.24-billion in 2002 furniture sales - though largely outdoor, casual and ready-to-assemble goods - still managed to eke out a $5-million lead for over No.2 Rooms To Go of Florida. Trade magazine Furniture Today ranked the Sam's Club division of Wal-Mart separately at $850-million in 2002.
BANKATLANTIC SPINNING LEVITT: BankAtlantic Bancorp, a Fort Lauderdale bank active in the Tampa Bay area, plans to spin off its Levitt Corp. subsidiary later this month through a stock dividend of the bank's Levitt shares. The shares will be distributed Dec. 31 to shareholders of record as of Dec. 18. Levitt, which is applying to the New York Stock Exchanges for a listing of its Class A common stock, is a builder of housing, planned communities and industrial and retail projects.
SEAVIEW NOW POWERLINX: SeaView Video Technology Inc. said Friday it has changed its name to Powerlinx Inc. and will begin trading under a new stock symbol Wednesday. Earlier this week, the Tierra Verde seller of underwater cameras and other video devices added Marty Traber of the Foley & Lardner law firm in Tampa to its board of directors. SeaView settled a class action lawsuit in 2002 over allegations that it had misrepresented its revenues.
TUCKER/HALL NAMES PRESIDENT: Tucker/Hall Inc. chief operating officer William E. "Bill" Carlson Jr. has been named president, the Tampa public relations company said Friday. Company founder and former president Jeff Tucker remains chief executive. Tucker/Hall said in a statement that Carlson will continue to run the company day-to-day and will also explore new joint ventures and strategic alliances.
PAINTBALL CHANGES HANDS: Pursuit Marketing Inc. has purchased the paintball division of Cardinal Health Inc. of Dublin, Ohio, including a paintball manufacturing facility located in Clearwater. Pursuit spokesman Michael Lukas said the Des Plaines, Ill., company has no plans to cut staff or close the 130-worker Clearwater plant. Pursuit had been Cardinal's exclusive North American paintball distributor since 1989.
CANADIAN DOLLAR SKIES: The Canadian dollar rose after the country's economy added more jobs than expected in November and the unemployment rate fell, suggesting the Bank of Canada can leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged, preserving the yield advantage over U.S. debt. "Canada's been going gangbusters lately" in the foreign exchange markets and "an employment number like that (54,100 jobs added) is no reason to have it turn around," said Ted Gould, a currency trader at Investors Bank & Trust in Boston. In New York trading, the currency rose to 76.64 U.S. cents Friday, from 76.20 cents late Thursday. It reached 76.79 early Friday.
STEWART REQUEST DENIED: U.S. District Judge John E. Sprizzo refused Friday to force the government's star witness in the trial of Martha Stewart to answer questions from the lifestyle maven's lawyers in a separate civil case. The decision prevents Stewart's lawyers from getting a preview of how the witness, former Merrill Lynch assistant Douglas Faneuil, will testify at Stewart's criminal trial, which is to begin Jan. 12. Faneuil has invoked the Fifth Amendment in refusing to answer questions from the Stewart legal team in the civil case, brought against Stewart by shareholders in her media company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.
EURO TOPS RECORD AGAIN: The surging euro set an all-time high against the U.S. dollar Friday for the sixth day in a row, hitting $1.2169 as the shared European currency extended a sharp rally that has seen it rise more than 15 percent against the greenback this year. The euro passed Thursday's high of $1.2158 after U.S. jobs data led to more dollar selling. The dollar also fell to a three-year low versus the yen at 107.57. In late New York trading, the dollar was quoted at 107.65 yen, down from 108.15 yen late Thursday.
GM ON TOP OF PENSION: General Motors Corp. may close its $19.3-billion pension fund deficit by the year end because of improving asset returns, company contributions and proceeds from the sale of a stake in its Hughes Electronics unit, a company spokeswoman said. General Motors has paid $14.4-billion into its pension funds this year, GM's Toni Simonetti said. The company will add $4-billion more if its sale of the Hughes Electronics stake to News Corp. is completed this year, she said.
ARBY'S CEO STEPS ASIDE: After helping to turn around the Arby's brand, the Fort Lauderdale fast-food chain's president and chief executive announced his resignation Thursday, saying he wanted to pursue other interests. Michael Howe, 51, who had served as president since July 1999 and added the title of chief executive in January 2001, said he has considered stepping down for about six months and he made the move now because he believes a strong successor is at hand. Doug Benham, chief financial officer of the chain's largest franchisee, the RTM Restaurant Group of Atlanta, has been named to replace Howe, effective Jan. 5, Triarc Companies, Arby's parent, announced.
CONSUMER DEBT PACE SLOWS: U.S. consumer debt increased in October at the slowest pace in four months, restrained by a decline in lending for vehicle purchases, Federal Reserve statistics showed. Borrowing through credit cards, auto loans and other nonmortgage personal debt increased $941-million for the month, or 0.6 percent, to $1.977-trillion, the Fed said. In September, consumer credit increased a revised $17-billion, the largest rise since January.
Earnings
ALBERTSONS INC.: One of three grocery store chains locked in a labor dispute since October, Albertsons said Friday that the Southern California strike cut its third quarter net income by 50 percent and overall sales by $132-million.
Same-store sales fell 0.8 percent during the quarter. But when striking stores are factored out, store sales rose 0.7 percent. So while sales overall rose, costs such as replacement workers, extra security and legal experts ate into profits, the company said.
KMART HOLDING CORP.: Kmart, which emerged from bankruptcy in May, said its third quarter loss narrowed to $23-million but sales fell sharply as the retailer offered fewer discounts and had fewer stores than a year ago.
