In the Region
US Airways to begin reducing flights, laying off workers
US Airways will soon trim flights and announce layoffs as it reorganizes under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, President and Chief Executive Officer David Siegel said yesterday in Philadelphia. He said he was holding news conferences in US Airways hub cities to affirm a commitment that service to any of the more than 200 communities to which the airline flies will not be eliminated.
Systemwide, trying to lure business travelers with extensive regional jet service and expanding international service will be key parts of the airline's effort to emerge from bankruptcy with a stronger balance sheet within six months, Siegel said.
He said the country's seventh-largest airline, which filed for bankruptcy protection Sunday, hasn't determined how many flights will be cut or how many employees will be laid off. "There will be some adjustment in our fleet size," Siegel said, adding that announcements will be made "in the near future."
Timonium company buys six Cellular Center stores
Communications Electronics, a family-owned wireless communications dealer based in Timonium, has purchased Annapolis Harbor Electronics' six stores.
The Cellular Center stores will be renamed Sept. 1 as part of Communications Electronics' new wholly owned subsidiary. They are in Annapolis, Crofton, Arnold, Severna Park and Glen Burnie in Anne Arundel County, and in Clinton in Prince George's County.
Communications Electronics now operates 12 stores as the largest independent distributor of Cingular Wireless products in the mid-Atlantic region, including stores in Baltimore and Carroll counties. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Elsewhere
Pimco Total Return becomes 2nd-largest mutual fund in U.S.
Pimco Total Return Fund's assets surpassed those of Fidelity Investments' Magellan Fund yesterday, making the bond fund the second-largest long-term mutual fund in the United States.
Magellan's assets slipped more than $6 billion, ending last month at $59.9 billion, according to Fidelity's Web site. Pimco Total Return had $61.2 billion in assets as of yesterday, said Pimco Funds spokesman Phil Neugebauer.
Falling stock markets cut the value of Magellan's holdings, and investors redeemed about $1.27 billion, the biggest monthly outflow in more than 4 1/2 years, analysts said. Pimco Total Return, run by Bill Gross, is this year's top-selling U.S. fund. It took in $7.83 billion in the first half, as consumers turned to bond funds to shield investments, analysts said.
Adelphia creditors want proposed loan rejected
Adelphia Communications Corp.'s creditors have asked a bankruptcy judge to reject a proposed $1.5 billion loan to the cable television company because it promises $300 million in interest payments to earlier bank lenders.
A panel representing the creditors said the banks should not get the payments because they are partly to blame for $3.1 billion borrowed by the company's founding Rigas family that was guaranteed by Adelphia but not reported in its books.
The lenders - banks led by Bank of America Corp., Wachovia Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Bank of Montreal - "knew what they were owed," and they and the Rigases were the only ones in a position to know about the hidden debts, the creditors committee, which includes bondholders, suppliers and other unsecured creditors, said in a bankruptcy court filing.
Qwest agrees to pay $1 million to Colorado
Qwest Communications International Inc. has agreed to pay $1 million to Colorado, along with an undetermined amount of restitution to customers, to settle complaints that it engaged in deceptive marketing of its telephone services.
The settlement was announced yesterday by Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar, whose office began investigating Qwest's marketing and customer-service practices last year after fielding hundreds of complaints.
Qwest spokesman Skip Thurman said he did not know when or how much the company expected to pay in customer restitution, which might appear as credits on Qwest bills. Salazar estimated that the restitution could total $1 million that Qwest must pay in addition to the $1 million it is paying the state, which will be used to offset the costs of the investigation, enforcement of the settlement and consumer education.
Tyco International to sell global switching center
Financially troubled Tyco International Ltd. is selling its new and never-used $75 million global telecommunications switching center on the Waianae Coast of the Hawaiian island of Oahu for less than a quarter of the original cost.
Some in the industry said the $18 million price is still too high, considering that many of the major telecommunications companies are in financial crisis.
Tyco representatives said the building in Maili is a casualty of troubles that halted expansion plans that included a $1 billion undersea fiber-optic cable linking East and West.
Pharmacia Corp. spins off its stake in Monsanto Co.
Drug maker Pharmacia Corp. has spun off its controlling stake in Monsanto Co. to clear the way for Pfizer Inc., the world's biggest drug company, to acquire No. 9 Pharmacia by year's end.
Pharmacia gave its stockholders the 220 million Monsanto shares it owned as a special, tax-free dividend yesterday. The shares represented an 84 percent stake in Monsanto.
Monsanto, a St. Louis-based agricultural products business, was spun off barely two years after Pharmacia bought Monsan-to. Both operations will continue without layoffs or other major changes, said Mark Krajnak, Pharmacia's media relations manager. Monsanto is best known for its Roundup herbicides, weed-control products and DeKalb and Asgrow seeds.
Symbol Technologies says accounting is being probed
Wireless data exchange company Symbol Technologies Inc. said yesterday that its accounting practices are under federal investigation and that it might restate last year's earnings.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Holtsville, N.Y.-based company said the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the "timing and amount" of revenue it reported last year. The SEC has "designated officers to take testimony" from Symbol, best known as a manufacturer of bar-code scanners, the filing stated.
Symbol said it has been cooperating with the SEC since February and has provided documents to federal authorities as it investigates the matter.
Federal prosecutors charge broker in $54 million fraud
Federal prosecutors in Cleveland filed charges of securities fraud, mail fraud, identity theft and making a false statement yesterday against broker Frank Gruttadauria, who is accused of cheating investors out of more than $50 million and lying on a bank loan application.
Prosecutors said that from 1987 to last year, Gruttadauria, 44, sent false statements to at least 28 customers about the status of their investments and accounts and shifted money among accounts to cover up losses. From 1996 to last year, he made $54.3 million in unauthorized transfers from customer accounts, prosecutors said.
Volkswagen AG seeking to triple U.S. Bentley sales
Volkswagen AG wants to triple U.S. sales of Bentley, the luxury auto brand it is splitting off from Rolls-Royce after 71 years of joint sales, a U.S. executive said yesterday.
The automaker is relying on a new $150,000 GT, which costs about $100,000 less than the next-cheapest model, to increase annual sales to 1,800 from 600 in the next three years, Bentley U.S. Chief Executive Officer Alasdair Stewart said in an interview with Bloomberg News. The coupe will be sold starting next year at Bentley's 39 North American dealerships, he said.
This column was compiled from reports by Sun staff writers, the Associated Press and Bloomberg News.