Business today

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 10, 2001

TWA BOARD OKAYS SALE, REPORT SAYS: Trans World Airlines will announce today its plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and accept a buyout by AMR Corp.'s American Airlines. TWA CEO Bill Compton briefed political leaders in Missouri on the deal via telephone after the airline's board approved it Tuesday evening. U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, a Democrat from St. Louis, said Compton told him the deal would be announced at 9 a.m. in New York. TWA and AMR officials refused to comment. According to a report on the Wall Street Journal's Web site, American will pay TWA $500-million and assume about $3-billion of aircraft operating leases.

BURGER KING SETTLES BIAS CASE: Burger King Corp. has settled with a Baltimore businessman who accused the company in a lawsuit of breach of contract and racial discrimination. La-Van Hawkins, who owns or leases Burger Kings in Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta and Maryland, will sell back 23 stores he operated. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Willie Gary, a lawyer for Hawkins, said in a statement that his client "was pleased with the resolution of the matter." Hawkins recently lost two rounds of litigation with Burger King. A New York state court last month ordered him to repay a company affiliate $8.4-million in overdue loans that helped finance the stores, and a federal judge dismissed a breach of contract suit in which Hawkins alleged Burger King was thwarting his plans to own and operate 200 stores in inner-city markets.

HEALTHPLAN NAMES INTERIM CFO: HealthPlan Services Corp. has hired Reid Johnson as interim chief financial officer of the Tampa company. Johnson has been CFO of Venator Group and Target Stores and has extensive experience in turnaround operations. HPS, which provides services to managed care companies and providers, is restructuring its operations and expects to take a charge of up to $1.5-million in the fourth quarter as a result of its consolidation.

F.N.B. TO USE SINGLE CHARTER: Pennsylvania-based F.N.B. Corp. is abandoning its multicharter system, combining all five of its Florida banks into a single state charter. The bank said it will cut about 70 back-office jobs, or 4 percent of its work force, and take a pretax charge of $3-million to $3.2-million to complete the cost-cutting move. It expects to boost pretax earnings to between $3.8-million and $4.1-million annually by 2002. The Florida units, including First National Bank of Florida and West Coast Guaranty Bank of Sarasota, will be overseen by executive vice president Kevin C. Hale, who receives the new title of president and CEO of First National Bank of Florida. F.N.B. follows other longtime holdouts, such as SunTrust Bank, that converted to a single charter after years of contending that a multicharter system gave more local autonomy to Floridians.

MARINEMAX BUYS REPAIR COMPANY: Boat retailer MarineMax Inc. of Clearwater has acquired yacht repair company Associated Marine Technologies Inc. for an undisclosed price. Associated Marine, based near Ft. Lauderdale, has annual revenue of approximately $8-million.

TOYSMART TO DESTROY DATABASE: Defunct online toy store Toysmart.com will be paid $50,000 and have its customer database destroyed rather than being sold off to pay creditors. Toysmart had assured its customers that their personal information would never be shared with a third party, but the company took out an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal to sell the database after going out of business in May. The Federal Trade Commission and the attorneys general of 42 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands sued Toysmart to keep it from divulging the data, which included names, addresses and credit card numbers. A Walt Disney Co. Internet subsidiary will pay Toysmart $50,000, and the toy company will destroy its own records. Toysmart is majority-owned by Disney.

UNITED LOSES BAGGAGE BATTLE: A federal court in Alexandria, Va., has ruled that United Airlines conspired with other carriers by installing baggage-sizing templates at screening checkpoints at Dulles International Airport in Washington. United, as manager of the Dulles terminal, installed the templates to limit the size of carry-on luggage. Continental Airlines sued. Continental is replacing its overhead bins to allow larger carry-ons and objected to having its passengers subjected to United's standards. United installed similar templates at Airside D at Tampa International Airport, which it shares with JetBlue, AirTran, Spirit and Air Canada. A United spokeswoman says the airline has not determined what to do about the templates at Dulles or what action to take, if any, at other airports. The court is expected to determine damages later. They could be tripled under federal antitrust laws.

XEROX DENIES BANKRUPTCY REPORT: Xerox Corp. denied a report that it had hired an investment firm as a bankruptcy adviser. The struggling company acknowledged hiring the Blackstone Group, a New York-based investment firm, as one of several financial advisers to counsel Xerox on its turnaround plan. The New York Post reported Tuesday that Xerox had retained Art Newman, head of Blackstone's bankruptcy practice. Xerox has been struggling for more than a year with increased competition, slow sales of its copiers and a stock price that has plunged nearly 80 percent from its 52-week high. Shares of Xerox fell 50 cents to $5.88.

BARNES & NOBLE TO MISS ESTIMATES: Shares of Barnes & Noble Inc. fell 8.3 percent after the nation's largest bookseller warned that fourth-quarter profits would be lower than Wall Street estimates due to disappointing holiday sales. The company said its bookselling segment will earn $1.30 a share, compared with the Wall Street consensus of $1.46. Likewise, its video game business is expected to earn 6 cents a share for the quarter, well below the 33 cents estimated by analysts. Shares were down $1.13, or 4.5 percent, to close at $23.75.

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