TED TAKES OFF TO CHICAGO: United Airlines' low-fare division, Ted, will start flying between Tampa International Airport and Chicago's O'Hare International on May 24. By early June, all five regular United flights on the route will be replaced by Ted, which flies A320 Airbus aircraft with coach-only service. The cabins will have a 66-seat Economy Plus section with four inches of extra leg room.
RUMORS PUMP WINN-DIXIE STOCK: Shares of Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. soared as high as 15 percent on Tuesday after thedeal.com, an online mergers and acquisitions tip sheet, reported the Davis family that controls the struggling supermarket chain is interested in taking the company private. The report quoted unnamed sources. The Jacksonville company, which has a policy of not discussing speculation, declined comment, and analysts discounted the report. Winn-Dixie shares closed at $8.08, up 73 cents.
POSTAL WORKERS SUE FOR OT: Three Tampa postal workers and one retiree have sued the U.S. Postal Service in federal court in Tampa, claiming electronic records of their work hours were routinely altered to cheat them out of overtime pay. The lawsuit filed by Gary Stone, Duane Dosal, Connie Blackburn and Dean Albrecht in January asks for class action status, saying more than 200,000 postal workers could be affected. They accuse the Postal Service of violating the Fair Labor Standards Act, racketeering and privacy breaches. A postal service official declined to comment.
ELECTRIC RATE PROPOSAL IN DOUBT: A Florida legislative panel approved a plan backed by Gov. Jeb Bush to allow Progress Energy and Florida Power & Light to freeze electric rates for seven years to finance environmental upgrades at their energy plants, including Progress Energy's Crystal River and Anclote plants. But the measure's future is in doubt. Several members of the House Natural Resources Committee expressed concerns about the freeze. And several of the state's biggest energy customers, including Publix, told the committee they oppose a freeze when energy costs are up because of higher fuel costs.
PETCO BUYS FLORIDA STORES: Petco Animal Supplies Inc. agreed to acquire 20 former Kids "R" Us stores from Office Depot Inc. for about $45-million plus lease obligations. The stores are concentrated in Florida and Ohio, with other locations in Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, North Carolina and New York. The stores are part of the 124 Kids "R" Us properties Office Depot agreed to purchase from Toys "R" Us Inc. this month. A Petco spokesman would not give exact locations.
DAIMLER DROPS BOARD PAY PLAN: Automaker DaimlerChrysler said Tuesday it was dropping a proposal to pay members of the board of directors according to how well the company's stock fares, saying it could conflict with a recent court decision. The company had proposed to cut board members' pay by 25 percent and then introduce a system that would link part of their compensation to stock price increases. "It cannot be ruled out that the court would view a variable form of supervisory board compensation based on the stock price as generally inadmissible," the company said in a statement.
MICROSOFT PREPARES ITS APPEAL: In a preview of its promised appeal, Microsoft Corp. accused the European Union of overreaching Tuesday by including its U.S. business in calculating a record fine of about $615-million for alleged antitrust abuses. Microsoft's chief European lawyer, Horacio Gutierrez, argued that the EU's reported fine appeared to be twice what it should have been under the European Commission's guidelines to account for the company's global operations. Microsoft does about 30 percent of its business in Europe. The company also argued it could not have known its behavior would infringe EU law and thus it should not be fined at all.
COMCAST MAY END OFFER: Comcast Corp. can't leave its $54.1-billion unsolicited bid for Walt Disney Co. "out there forever," Comcast co-CFO John Alchin said. Alchin told investors at a Bear Stearns conference this month that "it's fair to assume this can't be indefinite." Disney, the second-biggest U.S. media company, rejected the cable-television operator's offer Feb. 11 as too low.
PUTNAM KNEW OF BAD TRADING: Executives at Putnam Investments did not regard improper trading by several portfolio managers as serious misconduct and were slow to stop excessive trading by a handful of investors, according to an internal investigation of Putnam's practices. But the six-month investigation also found that, despite shortcomings, the country's sixth-largest mutual fund company largely did a good job of policing trading. The trustees' conclusions are similar to the those of an investigation by Putnam's management over the winter. That probe led to the firing of nine more employees for improper trading; six investment professionals had been fired earlier.
CABLE TO PROVIDE BLOCKERS: The cable television industry said Tuesday it will provide free equipment to allow subscribers to block unwanted channels, a reaction to efforts on Capitol Hill to curb indecent programming. The offer is directed to about half the nation's 70.5-million cable subscribers who don't have cable boxes that can be programmed to block channels or programs. The companies agreeing to the plan reach 85 percent of all cable subscribers. It comes just as lawmakers and regulators, attempting to crack down on indecent programming, have discussed requiring cable companies to let subscribers buy individual channels or a family-friendly tier rather than have to purchase packages that include both the Disney Channel and MTV.
RECORD LABELS SUE SOME MORE: The Recording Industry Association of America, on behalf of recording companies, sued 532 people Tuesday, including 89 individuals using computer networks at 21 universities, claiming they were illegally sharing digital music files over the Internet. This latest wave of copyright lawsuits marks the first time the trade group has targeted computer users swapping music files over university networks. The RIAA also filed the complaints against 443 people using commercial Internet access providers were also filed in California, Colorado, Missouri, Texas and Virginia.
BofA NAMES NEW CFO: Bank of America Corp. named a new CFO and head of investment banking as it prepares to complete its $47-billion purchase of FleetBoston Financial Corp. next month. Marc Oken, 57, was named to replace James Hance, 59, who will remain as vice chairman. Alvaro G. de Molina, 46, is taking over for investment banking chief Edward Brown, 55, who the company said is retiring.
DELTA CUT MULLINS' PAY: Delta Air Lines reduced 2003 cash compensation for Leo Mullin, who stepped down as CEO at the end of the year, by 59 percent to $1.17-million. Mullin, whose 2002 pay was criticized by members of Congress and some employees, received $639,313 in salary last year, down from $795,000 the year before. He wasn't awarded a bonus for 2003 after getting $1.4-million the year before. His total cash compensation for 2002 was $2.85-million. Mullin, 61, said in November that he would retire early and yield the CEO post to board member Gerald Grinstein.
4-WEEK T-BILL RATE DROPS: The U.S. Treasury sold $19-billion of its four-week securities at a discount rate of 0.945 percent, down from 0.96 percent during the three previous weeks. The return to investors was 0.952 percent. A $10,000 Treasury bill sold for $9,992.70.
