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Business Today

By TIMES WIRE
Published January 26, 2005

CITIZENS LAYS OUT PLANS: Citizens Property Insurance on Tuesday laid out plans for adding permanent staffers, opening regional claims offices and giving more power to claims adjusters in the field. The game plan was submitted to a state task force studying a possible overhaul of the state-run insurer before the next hurricane season. Citizens, which represents those who cannot find coverage in the open market, sparked more complaints than any other insurer during last year's hurricanes.

TICKETMASTER SUED: A California startup has filed a $100-million lawsuit against Ticketmaster, claiming the unit of Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp stole trade secrets, copied its technology and then walked off with its top prospective customers. In 2001, Ticketmaster agreed to pay $12.5-million to buy Ticket Innovations Inc., which had created an Internet system to help pro sports teams and their season ticket holders get top dollar for unused tickets without violating scalping laws. After spending two months studying the company's books and technology, Ticketmaster backed out. Three months later Ticketmaster set up its own online season ticket exchange system and signed up six teams that had been committed to Ticket Innovations, the suit contends.

GLOBAL ECONOMY EXPANDS 4 PERCENT: The global economy expanded by 4 percent last year, with developing countries a particular success, the United Nations said Tuesday in an upbeat report about the world's finances in 2004. But economists warned that major imbalances pose a serious threat, singling out the U.S. trade deficit, which rose to more than $650-billion. That led the dollar to reach a new low against the euro in 2004.

CHINA'S ECONOMY GROWS QUICKLY: China's economy expanded at its fastest pace in eight years in 2004, growing at an annual rate of 9.5 percent despite efforts to slow its blistering pace in order to avert inflation, the government said Tuesday. The figures exceeded economists' forecasts and were well above the official target of 8 percent. The report followed a full year of curbs on investment and credit aimed at bringing growth down to a more sustainable pace and easing inflationary pressures.

BID MADE FOR BEVERLY: Shares in Beverly Enterprises Inc. surged more than 25 percent Tuesday after a group of investment firms made a preliminary $1.53-billion bid to buy the nursing home and health care services company. Beverly said its board was "reviewing the preliminary expressions of interest" from Formation Capital LLC, an investment group including Appaloosa Management LP, Franklin Mutual Advisors LLC and Northbrook NBV LLC.

KRISPY KREME'S LENDERS PUSH BACK DEADLINE: Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc.'s lenders have agreed to push back the deadline for default on a credit line until March 25, the company said Tuesday. The company said it has agreed to change the terms of its credit line to keep the company from borrowing any more cash without the consent of its lenders.

SOUTHWEST, MOVIE COMPANY SIGN DEAL: Southwest Airlines announced on Tuesday a promotion with online movie company Movielink LLC giving the airline's customers discounted movie downloads to their personal computers. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. By going through Southwest's Web site, consumers can get one free movie download, plus a 20 percent discount on subsequent downloads through July 31. Customers don't need to buy tickets on Southwest. They can go to www.southwest.com/movielink and download the feature presentation, which could take 30 minutes to 90 minutes to download. Movielink is a consortium of major studios, including MGM, Paramount and Sony.

[Last modified January 26, 2005, 00:18:23]