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Business Today

By wire services
Published March 4, 2005

CAPITAL ONE'S TAMPA COMPLEX SOLD: America's Capital Partners is buying Capital One's five-building office complex in Tampa, giving the Miami investment group its second high-profile bay area acquisition in a month. A sales price was not disclosed but real estate sources familiar with the deal confirmed it was about $70-million. Capital One put the property on the market last summer after deciding to close its 1,100-employee credit card call center housed in part of the complex. The 530,000-square-foot complex is about 60 percent leased with major tenants including WellCare Health Plans and other Capital One operations not affected by the layoffs. "We are thrilled to have acquired Renaissance Park, which we believe is the premier suburban office campus in the Tampa Bay area," said Michael Lerner, vice president of acquisitions and dispositions for America's Capital Partners. On Jan. 31, America's Capital Property bought the 31-story 400 North Ashley Plaza in downtown Tampa for about $35-million.

PRODUCTIVITY RISES . . .: The productivity of American workers rose at an annual rate of 2.1 percent in the final three months of last year, sharply higher than originally believed. The Labor Department had initially reported a month ago that productivity - the amount of output per hour of work - had risen by just 0.8 percent in the October-December quarter, a figure that had jolted financial markets because it raised worries that inflation pressures could be mounting. The better-than-expected 2.1 percent revised estimate for productivity left this indicator for all of 2004 rising by 4 percent, the department said Thursday, capping the strongest three-year period for productivity growth in more than a half-century of record keeping.

. . . JOBLESS FILINGS DIP: The Labor Department on Thursday said the number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits dipped by 1,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 310,000. It marked the fourth decline in jobless claims in the past five weeks and pushed the four-week moving average for new claims down to 307,000.

JURY MAY GET EBBERS CASE TODAY: A lawyer for ex-WorldCom Inc. chief Bernard Ebbers turned his closing argument Thursday into a blistering attack on star prosecution witness Scott Sullivan, calling him a crafty liar with Broadway-worthy acting skills. In a final plea to jurors to acquit Ebbers of fraud, lawyer Reid Weingarten laid the blame for WorldCom's massive accounting fraud squarely on Sullivan, who served as chief financial officer under Ebbers. Jurors are expected to get the case today.

BANK OF AMERICA SETTLES WORLDCOM SUIT: Following the lead of Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. on Thursday became the second large U.S. bank to settle claims stemming from a class-action lawsuit by former shareholders of WorldCom Inc. Bank of America will pay $460.5-million to settle its claims in a suit brought against more than a dozen Wall Street firms by individuals and institutions who invested in stocks and bonds before the 2002 collapse of the communications company in an accounting scandal. The investors claimed the defendants should have been aware of ongoing fraud at WorldCom. WorldCom has since emerged from bankruptcy as MCI Inc. Bank of America, the nation's third-largest bank, denied violating any laws, saying it decided to settle the claims "to eliminate the uncertainties, expense and distraction" of further litigation.

[Last modified March 4, 2005, 00:40:53]