CVS REFILES ACQUISITION PLAN: CVS Corp. said Friday it will refile with antitrust regulators paperwork for its pending acquisition of more than 1,200 Eckerd Corp. stores in Florida, Texas and Louisiana. The Federal Trade Commission informally requested the refiling as the deadline for the agency to act drew within two weeks. Refiling will move the deadline ahead for the acquisition CVS expects will be completed in June. "This is not related to the merits of our acquisition plan," said CVS spokesman Todd Andrews.
By wire services
Published May 15, 2004
NORTEL RECORDS SUBPOENAED: Nortel Networks has received a subpoena from federal prosecutors in Dallas ordering the Canadian telecom equipment maker to produce accounting and other records going back more than four years, the company announced Friday. Nortel, which recently fired three top executives including CEO Frank Dunn after finding problems with its 2003 and earlier financial statements, said it will cooperate with authorities. Nortel did not say whether the firings were related to an investigation. The Ontario company has a major facility near Dallas.
"HATE CRIME" AT GOODYEAR PLANT?: An investigation is under way at a Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. plant in Tennessee after officials learned of threatening notes and a noose being left in areas where black employees work. Obion County Sheriff Jerry Vastbinder said the incidents at the plant in Union City, Tenn., are being investigated as a hate crime. Vastbinder declined to comment on whether any suspects had been identified. FBI spokesman George Bolds said the agency was reviewing the evidence.
PENNEY WON'T BUY DOCKERS: J.C. Penney Co. Inc., which expects to net $3.5-billion by selling its Eckerd drugstores, says it is not interested in buying the Dockers clothing label from Levi Strauss. Penney officials expressed sticker shock at estimates of the price Levi Strauss Co. may ask for the line of men's khakis and casual clothing - $1-billion to $1.5-billion. Chairman and CEO Allen Questrom said the company plans mostly to pay down debt and buy back shares of Penney stock with proceeds from the sale.
FEDERAL RULES CUT TRAINING OPTIONS: Across the country, thousands of laid-off workers stand to lose job retraining opportunities because of a little-noticed change in the way the government pays for such programs. The Labor Department rules, adopted this year, bar the practice by which states "bundled" small groups of laid-off workers from separate companies to reach the threshold of 50 employees needed to obtain training dollars. The department dispensed $614-million in so-called national emergency grants in 2000 through 2002.
ORACLE LOWERS BID FOR PEOPLESOFT: Business software maker Oracle Corp. reduced its hostile takeover bid for rival PeopleSoft Inc. to $7.7-billion on Friday, shaving nearly 20 percent, or $1.7-billion, from its previous offer to reflect its prey's wilting market value. Oracle revised its nearly year-old bid for PeopleSoft to $21 a share from $26 a share, or $9.4 billion. PeopleSoft's stock has plunged 24 percent this year as investors abandoned hope that the deal would go through. PeopleSoft's shares closed Friday at $17 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
SUIT COSTS RAYTHEON $410-MILLION: Defense contractor Raytheon Co. will pay $410-million in cash and securities to settle a lawsuit filed nearly five years ago by shareholders who claimed the company misled them about its financial problems. Trial was set to start this month in U.S. District Court in Boston. The tentative settlement leaves standing less-sweeping allegations against Raytheon's auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, claiming it signed off on misleading financial statements by Raytheon, and stood to garner more than $70-million worth of fees for non-audit services.
US AIRWAYS TO LAY OFF 200: US Airways expects to lay off about 200 gate agents in the fall because it plans to install automated ticket readers, according to a union official. The layoffs will mostly occur at Pittsburgh International Airport and the airline's two other hubs, Philadelphia and Charlotte, N.C., said Chris Fox, president of Communications Workers of America Local 13302. The airline told the union of its plans Wednesday, Fox said. "They were supposed to talk to us before they ever ordered them," she said. "We found out that they were ordering these about six weeks ago."
CENDANT EX-EXEC FINED $14-MILLION: Former Cendant Corp. executive vice president Cosmo Corigliano agreed to pay $14-million to settle regulatory allegations that he helped devise one of the largest accounting frauds in U.S. history. Corigliano, 44, helped superiors inflate revenue as controller of CUC International Inc., the Securities and Exchange Commission said. CUC merged in 1997 with HFS Inc. to create Cendant, the world's largest hotel franchiser. Corigliano later "proceeded to orchestrate and refine the fraud," the agency said. Cendant paid $2.85-billion, the largest shareholder damages settlement in U.S. history, after disclosing accounting irregularities in April 1998.
LIBERTY WEIGHS ADELPHIA BID: Liberty Media Corp. may consider a bid for bankrupt Adelphia Communications Corp. if it could forge a partnership with Cox Communications Inc., president and CEO Robert Bennett told investors. Liberty would not submit a bid for Adelphia on its own, Bennett said Thursday, but would be interested in a joint bid if it would help Liberty increase its stake in Discovery Communications Inc. Liberty and Cox each own 50 percent of Discovery. Speaking at an investors' conference in New York that was broadcast on the Internet, Bennett said the move is just a possibility at this point.
HP GIVES CANADA $104.7-MILLION: Hewlett-Packard Co. will reimburse Canada $104.7-million after the government said it had received bogus bills for military technology services work the company inherited from Compaq Computer Corp. A Royal Canadian Mounted Police inquiry is continuing, said Doug Drever, a Department of National Defense spokesman. The dispute relates to contracts originally awarded to the former Digital Equipment Corp. in 1991 for work involving national security, HP spokeswoman Monica Sarkar said. Compaq bought Digital in 1998, and Hewlett-Packard bought Compaq in 2002.
QWEST RETRIAL ANNOUNCED: Federal prosecutors told U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn they will retry former Qwest Communications executive Thomas Hall on charges of improperly booking nearly $34-million in revenue in a 2001 deal. A jury deadlocked on all 11 counts against him last month following a nine-week trial. Meanwhile, fellow defendant Grant Graham has reached a plea deal. Graham had been acquitted of three wire fraud charges, but the jury deadlocked on eight other counts. The two plus John Walker and Bryan Treadway were charged with improperly booking money from an equipment sale to Arizona schools in 2001. Walker and Treadway were acquitted of all charges on April 16.
