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Business Today

By TIMES WIRE
Published April 27, 2005

MAN UNITED BOARD TO LET SHAREHOLDERS VOTE ON GLAZER BID: The board of British soccer team Manchester United is expected to let the team's shareholders decide on whether to accept Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Malcolm Glazer's $1.5-billion takeover offer, Reuters reported Tuesday. Citing unidentified sources, the news agency said the Manchester board believes Glazer's bid is fairly priced but won't recommend it because of the large amount of debt needed to finance the deal. The board is in talks with Glazer's advisers over the wording of a statement to shareholders that is expected to be released this week, Reuters reported.

MICROSOFT, SAP DEVELOP NEW PRODUCT: SAP AG and Microsoft Corp. said Tuesday they had developed a new product to link their business software programs in a further cooperative step between the world's leading software producers. The project will link SAP software to Microsoft's ubiquitous Office suite, letting users funnel data from SAP software through Microsoft. That should make it easier to integrate SAP processes, such as time management, budget monitoring, travel and expense management, directly into Microsoft Office.

IBM RAISES QUARTERLY DIVIDEND: International Business Machines Corp. said Tuesday its board raised the company's quarterly cash dividend by 11 percent to 20 cents per share, and authorized $5-billion in additional funds for use in its stock repurchase program.

TYCO PROSECUTORS CALL LAST WITNESS: Prosecutors on Tuesday presented their final witness in the multimillion-dollar larceny retrial of two former top Tyco International Ltd. executives. The defense was expected to call its first witness today. Lawyers for the defendants, former CEO L. Dennis Kozlowski, 58, and former chief financial officer Mark Swartz, 44, would not say who they planned to call to testify.

FTC CHAIRWOMAN WON'T REVIEW OIL MERGER: The chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission will not take part in the antitrust review of Valero Energy Corp.'s $6.9-billion bid for rival independent oil refiner Premcor Inc. because of a conflict of interest. Chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras recused herself from reviewing the merger, which would create the largest refiner in North America, because a client of her husband's law firm, Jones Day, is involved in the transaction.

[Last modified April 27, 2005, 01:05:54]