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In brief: Tax errors prompt firm's restatement

By Times staff and wires
Published April 5, 2007

Tax errors prompt firm's restatement
CLEARWATER - Technology Research Corp., a maker of electrical safety products, said it will restate its financial data for the years ended March 31, 2005, and March 31, 2006, and for seven quarters in 2004 to 2006. The company said the restatement would correct errors in reporting income taxes for those periods, and pay additional taxes and interest due. The CEO and president, Owen Farren, succeeded Robert Wiggins earlier this year. Wiggins remains chairman.

Slow growth in service sector raises concerns
WASHINGTON - The U.S. service sector expanded at a slower rate in March than in the previous month, a trade group said Wednesday, coming in below economists' expectations and adding to concerns that U.S. economic growth is slowing. The Institute for Supply Management, an organization of corporate purchasing executives, said that its index of business activity in the non-manufacturing sector registered 52.4 in March, its lowest level since April 2003, down from 54.3 in February. Wall Street was expecting a reading of 54.7.

Housing industry is shedding jobs
NEW YORK - Job cuts in the housing industry jumped in the first quarter and almost matched the cuts in all of 2006, an outplacement consultancy said Wednesday. Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. reported that job cuts in housing, including real estate, construction and mortgage lending, soared 346 percent to 21,245 in the first quarter, compared with 4,764 job cuts last year.

DaimlerChrysler confirms sale talks
BERLIN - DaimlerChrysler insists it is keeping all options open for the future of Chrysler. But judging by the shareholders at its annual meeting on Wednesday, Daimler's marriage to Chrysler is finished - except for the ink on the divorce papers. Trying to placate angry shareholders, DaimlerChrysler confirmed that it was in talks with several groups about a deal for the troubled unit, which lost $1.5-billion last year.

Federated invests in online, catalogs
CINCINNATI - Federated Department Stores will invest an additional $100-million this fiscal year in its direct-to-consumer businesses, including such Web sites as macys.com and bloomingdales.com, and its Bloomingdale's catalog. Federated expects its direct-to-consumer businesses to grow to more than $1-billion in sales by 2008 from about $620-million in 2006, the company said Wednesday.

Cemex-Rinker deal may affect Florida
MEXICO CITY - The U.S. Justice Department filed a proposed consent decree requiring Mexican cement maker Cemex SAB de CV to divest more than three dozen facilities in Arizona and Florida if its hostile takeover bid for Australia's Rinker Group Ltd. succeeds. The decree was filed Wednesday along with a Justice Department lawsuit seeking to block the $12-billion takeover due to competitive concerns. If approved, the decree would resolve the lawsuit. It was unknown whether any of Cemex's Tampa Bay-area facilities would be affected.

[Last modified April 4, 2007, 23:34:58]