USAA PLANS TO HIRE 280: USAA plans to hire about 280 people in its Tampa office this year, beginning with 44 openings in the next three months. The company, which provides insurance and other financial services to members of the military and their families, said most of the new jobs will be entry-level positions in customer service and claims. Applicants are urged to submit resumes through the corporate Web site, www.usaa.com Starting salaries for entry-level jobs will range from $25,500 to $27,500 with experienced-level salaries at $40,000 and up. USAA, which is based in San Antonio, currently has about 1,600 employees at its Tampa campus.
CVS DUMPS CATALINA NEWSLETTER: The pharmacy publishing unit of Catalina Marketing Corp. took another hit on Thursday when CVS Corp. decided to take 3,900 of its drugstores out of the St. Petersburg company's Health Resource Network. Health Resource creates custom-tailored prescription newsletters designed as an advertising medium for pharmaceutical companies in 12,500 stores. "We decided to move in a different direction," said CVS spokesman Todd Andrews. CVS accounted for 3 percent of the newsletter volume. The decision comes after Eckerd Corp. last year stopped using the system.
SYKES CLOSES KANSAS CENTER: Sykes Enterprises of Tampa plans to close another of its U.S. call centers, this time in Manhattan, Kan. According to Kansas.com, roughly 400 employees will lose their jobs. The closure will leave Sykes with nine domestic call centers, less than half the number it used to, as it moves more jobs to cheaper locales such as India, Costa Rica and the Philippines. In 2003, the company lost millions of dollars on its U.S. call centers and made millions on its overseas ones.
GAS PRICES RISE INTO SUMMER: Gasoline prices will rise a nickel a gallon nationwide before the end of June but return to current levels before fall, the Energy Department said Thursday, warning of possible price spikes in the Northeast and West Coast. The average price at the pump, $1.78 a gallon this week, will rise to a three-month average of about $1.81 by the end of June. Prices for April to September are expected to average $1.76 a gallon nationwide, a record high for the summer and 20 cents a gallon more than last year.
ORANGE HARVEST A RECORD: Florida orange growers will produce a record crop this season even after the U.S. Department of Agriculture reduced this month's estimate by 1-million boxes. Florida will produce 245-million boxes of oranges, or 1-million more than the 244-million in the season that started October 1997, the old record, the government said. This month's estimate was down 0.4 percent from last month's forecast but would be 21 percent larger than last year's crop.
NRC WANTS TO FINE PROGRESS: Progress Energy Inc., parent of Progress Energy Florida, should pay an $88,000 civil penalty for firing an employee who reported lapses of nuclear plant security in 1999, Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has proposed. The proposal follows a ruling in September against Progress by a Labor Department administrative review board. The former employee, Richard Kester, was cleared employees and contractors for access to the company's three North Carolina nuclear plants. Progress fired him partly for reporting security flaws to federal inspectors, a violation of a federal whistleblower law, the review board ruled.
NEW DOW MEMBERS' DAY MIXED: The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 38.12, or 0.4 percent, at 10,442.03 Thursday, and its newest components mirrored the day's lackluster results, although they had been expected to benefit from their new status. AIG gained 2 cents to $76.27, Pfizer dropped 7 cents to $35.60 and Verizon was unchanged at $37.31. The departing AT&T Corp. slipped 29 cents to $19.23, International Paper fell 39 cents to $42.01 and Kodak dropped 5 cents to $25.44.
EX-CUSTOMERS SUE AT&T WIRELESS: AT&T Wireless Services Inc., which Cingular Wireless LLC is buying for $41-billion, is being sued by customers in Seattle who say they were illegally charged full monthly rates after switching service providers before the end of a month. The lawsuit, filed March 30 in federal court, seeks to become a class action and asks for a jury trial, unspecified damages and reimbursement of legal fees. AT&T Wireless violated the Federal Communications Act and imposed an "unjust and unreasonable" charge by assessing the full monthly charges, the lawsuit said.
BOEING MAY SELL MAJOR OPERATIONS: Boeing Co. is looking for a buyer of its commercial aircraft and support operations in Wichita, Kan., and Oklahoma, according to an internal memo obtained Thursday by the Associated Press. "We've now reached the point where the next logical step is to see whether there is market interest in these operations and, if so, how they might be valued," four Boeing executives wrote in the memo dated Thursday to all employees in Wichita and Tulsa and McAlester, Okla. Selling its commercial operations is one of several avenues under consideration as the company tries to focus more on design, sales and marketing, Boeing spokesman Craig Martin confirmed Thursday.
RELIANT INDICTED IN CALIF.: A Reliant Resources Inc. power-trading unit and four employees were indicted Thursday in the first criminal case lodged against a company accused of manipulating power prices during California's energy crisis. A federal grand jury indicted Reliant Energy Services Inc., its former vice president, a director, a manager and a trader. The company is accused of shutting down four of its generating stations, withholding power from the market and purchasing electricity instead of producing it. Artificially high spot-market power prices were the result of "defendants' conspiracy, scheme to defraud and manipulation," the indictment said. Reliant Energy Services then sold power at the higher prices, costing electricity purchasers $32-million in overpayments.
ACCENTURE NAMES NEW CEO: Accenture Ltd., the former Andersen Consulting now based in Hamilton, Bermuda, said its chief operating officer of client services, William D. Green, will take over as chief executive when Joe Forehand steps down Sept. 1. Green, 50, joined Accenture in 1977. From 1999 until March 2003, he served as chief executive of the company's communications and high tech operating group, which posted revenue of $3.29-billion last year and is Accenture's largest unit. Forehand, 55, has been Accenture's chief executive since November 1999 and chairman since February 2001. He will remain chairman.
EARNINGS
General Electric Co.: GE's earnings rose 8 percent in the first quarter, matching analysts' expectations as nine of its 11 businesses reported double-digit profit gains. "This has been a great week for GE," Jeff Immelt, chairman and chief executive, told analysts in a conference call Thursday. He cited GE's closing Thursday on its $9.5-billion purchase of Amersham PLC, a diagnostic imaging agents and life sciences company, to broaden its capabilities in medical technology. Immelt also noted the decision announced Tuesday by Boeing that GE and Rolls Royce PLC will supply the engines for its planned new 7E7 Dreamliner airplane. The deal could be worth as much as $40-billion over 25 years.
SunTrust Banks Inc.: Atlanta-based SunTrust, the first major U.S. bank to report first-quarter results, said net income rose 9.3 percent from a year ago, helped by increasing demand for loans, higher fee income and expense controls. Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call had expected, on average, earnings of $1.23 a share. SunTrust operates about 1,200 bank branches across the Southeast.
