LawPedia® - Business at Law

Tuesday, November 28, 2006 - SAN DIEGO - The San Diego City Council voted late Tuesday to ban certain giant retail stores, taking aim at Wal-Mart Supercenter stores which average 185,000 square feet and sell groceries. The measure, approved on a 5-3 vote, dealt a blow to Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s potential to expand in San Diego, which is the nation's eighth-largest city. The ban prohibits stores of more than 90,000 square feet that use 10 percent of space to sell groceries and other merchandise that is not subject to sales tax. The ban is modeled on a law in Turlock, California, a city of 70,000 people 85 miles southeast of San Francisco. The City of Turlock prohibited big-box stores over 100,000 square feet that devote at least 5 percent of their space to groceries. Wal-Mart recently dropped its challenge to the Turlock ordinance, which prevented it from building a planned 225,000-square-foot Supercenter store. In July, a federal judge in Fresno said Turlock's zoning law did not infringe on the company's constitutional rights. The state Supreme Court refused to hear the case. Supporters of these bans argue that Wal-Mart puts smaller competitors out of business, pays workers poorly, and contributes to traffic congestion and pollution. Opponents say the mega-retailer provides jobs and low prices and that a ban limits consumer choice.

Monday, August 14, 2006 - SAN FRANCISCO - Dell Computer said on Monday it would recall 4.1 million notebook computer batteries because they could overheat and catch fire, in the biggest recall in the 22-year history of the world's largest personal computer maker.

Monday, August 7, 2006 - WASHINGTON - Martha Stewart will pay about $195,000 and cannot serve as the director of a public company for five years under a settlement announced Monday on civil insider trading charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Friday, August 4, 2006 - NEW YORK - AOL will let go a quarter of its global work force within six months. AOL is looking to save more than $1 billion from payroll to offset giving more services away for free. Some employees in Europe will keep jobs with a company purchasing AOL's Internet access businesses there. Massive layoffs are expected as AOL stops actively marketing its dial-up services in the United States and reduces its need for customer-support centers. AOL will also no longer produce and distribute those trial discs that often come unsolicited in mailboxes and magazines.

Friday, July 7, 2006 - ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey - Atlantic City's casinos are expected to reopen after they closed their doors on Wednesday. The casinos are not allowed to operate without state regulators in place and a budget crisis in New Jersey caused nonessential state employees being ordered to stay home. Politicians in the state capital debated over filling a $4.5 billion budget deficit, but reached a deal Thursday. The casinos stood to lose more than $16 million a day during the shut down, while the state would lose an estimated $1.3 million a day in the taxes they normally generate.

Thursday, April 27, 2006 - SEOUL, South Korea - Government prosecutors requested an arrest warrant for Hyundai Motor Co. Chairman Chung Mong-koo on Thursday. A bribery and slush fund scandal has shaken Hyundai, South Korea's largest automaker. Chung is suspected of embezzling about 100 billion won ($106 million) in company money to create a slush fund, as well as accused of breach of trust for incurring about 300 billion won ($317 million) of damages against the company. Prosecution spokesman Kang Chan-woo said the warrant was requested for the elder Chung, while his son, Kia Motor's Corp. President Chung Eui-sun will continue to be investigated without being physically detained.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - HOUSTON, Texas - Enron founder Kenneth Lay testified again today for a second time in his fraud and conspiracy trial. Lay, 64, who began his testimony on Monday, has said from the day he was indicted in July 2004 that he would testify at his trial. Lay's lead lawyer, Michael Ramsey, was recovering from stents placed in a coronary artery and then his carotid artery in late March and early April. Another Lay lawyer, George Secrest, questioned the ex-chairman. Lay smiled and greeted the 12 jury members and four alternates as they entered the courtroom Tuesday, while he presented a far more serious and tense demeanor in sharp contrast to the relaxed manner he displayed on Monday. Lay says Enron was a victim of a media "witch hunt" that ultimately sent the financially strong energy giant on a path to bankruptcy.

Thursday, April 13, 2006 - MARSHALL, Texas - A federal jury awarded TiVo Inc. $73.9 million in damages Thursday in a patent-infringement lawsuit against EchoStar Communications Corp. Tivo was among the first to sell devices to pause and rewind live television. Echo Star is the parent of the Dish satellite television provider. The 10-member jury deliberated just over two hours after hearing two weeks of highly technical testimony from engineering experts. The panel agreed with TiVo's nine claims that EchoStar had used its technology without license for the satellite company's own DVRs.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey - Jurors handed Merck a $9 million punitive damage award Tuesday, added to the $4.5 million compensatory damages award ordered by the same jury last week for a Vioxx user.

Friday, April 7, 2006 - BEIJING, China - The showroom of Harley-Davidson's first authorized dealership in China opened this week. The new store, called "Beijing Harley-Davidson", will sell and service Harley bikes as well as parts, accessories, clothing and collectibles. On Saturday the official launch of the dealership is the first for the Milwaukee-based US manufacturer and for Chinese Harley fans. Harley has taken more than 50 years to enter China since the communist rule, due to barriers including government restrictions on powerful bikes and as well as lack of demand for the American Harley icon until now.

Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey - A jury found Merck & Co. liable on Wednesday for one of two former Vioxx users' heart attacks in a split verdict that awarded $4.5 million in damages to one of the plaintiffs. The verdict is the second court loss for Merck, against two victories, one in a retrial. The trial was the first dealing with plaintiffs who blamed illnesses on long-term use of Vioxx. VIOXX CURRENT & POTENTIAL PRODUCT LIABILITY TRIAL DATES IN 2006.

Tuesday, April 4, 2006 - NEW YORK- Citigroup, the world's largest financial services group announced today it was again free to consider acquisitions. In a letter to Citigroup Monday, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said Citigroup had made "significant progress" in improving its compliance and risk management programs, leading the regulator to remove a March 2005 order discouraging major acquisitions.

Sunday, April 2, 2006 - PARIS, France - France's Alcatel SA will acquire rival telecom equipment maker Lucent Technologies Inc. in a $13.4 billion (11.1 billion euro) stock swap. The combined businesses to be based in Paris will shed 10 percent of their combined work force (about 8,800 jobs) after the deal closes. The new Alcatel-Lucent, with a new name to be announced later, will work toward converged offerings like "triple-play" Internet, phone and TV packages that have become popular in the telecom field. Alcatel shareholders will hold about 60 percent of the new company and Lucent shareholders 40 percent under the terms of the transaction.

Friday, March 31, 2006 - SAN FRANCISCO - Google shares are being added to the Standard & Poor's index after the close on Friday. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing late Wednesday, Google said it expects to sell 5.3 million shares hoping to raise more than $2 billion to finance its ambitious plan to expand beyond its Internet-leading search engine. The sale will primarily be to index funds who must own a stake in the company because it is now in the S&P 500. Google's market value has climbed by more than 15 percent since Standard & Poor's said it would include the company's stock in the blue-chip bellwether. Based on Wednesday's closing price of $394.98 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, Google's offering would raise about $2.1 billion. The company expects to have 305.4 million shares outstanding after the latest offering, up from 271.2 million shares at the time of its IPO. Google's market value has increased by about $100 billion since the company went public.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006 - WASHINGTON - In his first meeting as Chairman, Ben Bernanke, is continuing with the Federal Reserve's trend and boosted federal funds rates to a five-year high of 4.75 percent. He suggested that more interest rate hikes are possible. Some economists and investors had hoped Tuesday's increase was the last. The funds rate stood at a 46-year low of only one percent while the Reserve sought to rescue the economy after the stock market bubble burst and the 2001 recession, as well as the September 11 attacks and multiple high profile accounting scandals.

Saturday, March 18, 2006 - BEIJING, China - Chinese President Hu Jintao plans a visit to the United States next month. Wu Xiaoling, a deputy governor of the People's Bank of China (english version website) said on Saturday that China is not determining the quickening appreciation of the yuan ahead of Hu's trip. Wu also said China would continue to promote overseas investment. With Beijing encouraging firms to seek out foreign natural resources and markets, Chinese companies spent more than $6 billion abroad in 2005. The yuan gained 0.24 percent this week, a weekly record since it was revalued by 2.1 percent on July 21, 2005. At that time the Chinese yuan was cut free from an 11-year old dollar peg and allowed to float within tightly managed bands, a total of 0.98 percent since then. Critics in Washington say the yuan is so undervalued that it gives Chinese products an unfair advantage in U.S. markets, costing millions of lost American jobs and fuelling a record bilateral trade gap.

Friday, March 10, 2006 - European Union - China's Commerce Ministry urged the European Union on Friday to reconsider proposed sanctions on Chinese exports of shoes. Under pressure from European manufacturers, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said Wednesday that he was ready to act against imports of cheap shoes from China and Vietnam. If imposed, the EU would phase in temporary anti-dumping duties of up to 19.4 percent against Chinese shoe exporters by October, with measures lasting up to five years to be announced in October. An EU delegation will travel to China this week and meet with Chinese officials and industry representatives over the issue.

Thursday, March 9, 2006 - TOKYO, Japan - The Bank of Japan through Governor Toshihiko Fukui announced on Thursday that it has abandoned the super-easy monetary policy it has kept for five years. Fukio said the central bank will gradually raise interest rates and start to cut the excess cash in the banking system amid signs of economic recovery. He reported that interest rates will stay at zero for some time, then stay extremely low and go through an adjustment period. Bank of Japan super-easy policy, known as quantitative easing, was unprecedented. The US Federal Reserve and the world's other central banks rely on interest rates to keep their economy in balance, including price fluctuations and growth. There are also market interactions on an international scale to consider. Japan's policy made it easy to borrow money in Japan practically interest-free and invest it elsewhere.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006 - VIENNA, Austria - Oil ministers attended Wednesday's meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). They will not be cutting production to ease the $60-plus a barrel oil prices. The ministers agree that a surplus of crude oil will ensure ample supplies in the face of political instability and terrorist attacks targeting pipelines and other facilities in Nigeria and the Middle East. Kuwait's oil minister, Sheik Ahmed Fahd Al Ahmed Al-Sabah, believes geopolitical tensions are adding at least $5 to $8 price per oil barrel.

Monday, March 6, 2006 - ATLANTA, Georgia - On Sunday it was announced that AT&T Inc. is buying BellSouth Corp. for $67 billion in stock. The move further consolidates the telecommunications industry and will give AT&T total control of their growing joint venture, Cingular Wireless LLC. The sale is subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals.

Thursday, March 2, 2006 - BANGALORE, India - In the late 1970s IBM exited India leaving an opportunity for Indian companies to realize power in technology. In the mid-1980s outsourcing became prevalent when India began to liberalize imports, and developed a need to find roles for displaced native workers who were highly trained and talented. Motorola and Intel took advantage of these first Indian outsourcing opportuntities. Azim Premji, chairman of Wipro, says India also offers financial outsourcing to American companies in the finance industry, and "knowledge workers" to other countries as well. He says India supplies talent which is not available elsewhere with a raw supply of engineering talent. Premji believes that 9-11 has resulted in restraining the entry of software workers into the United States, and that the sooner the US "returns to normal" the better America will be in the market and world.

Tuesday, February 28, 2006 - HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam - Intel will build a 300-million-dollar semiconductor assembly and test plant in Vietnam. Intel Chairman Craig Barrett said the factory will assemble, test and ship microprocessors used in PCs and other electronic devices, and will begin operations in the second half of 2007.

Friday, February 24, 2006 - Richmond, Virginia - Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM), the Canadian manufacturer of the BlackBerry wireless e-mail handheld gained some ground last Wednesday when the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a final rejection of one of five disputed patents owned by NTP, Inc. The move was another step in a long process that RIM hopes will allow it to keep operating its BlackBerry service in the United States. On Friday, the presiding judge in the ongoing federal case, U.S. District Court Judge James Spencer, held a hearing in Richmond, Virginia, to consider NTP's request to go forward with an injunction that would shut down most sales of RIM's BlackBerry device and service in the United States. Judge Spencer delayed any ruling at this time, and did not indicate when he would make a decision, but said a ruling on damages would likely happen before a decision about the injunction. Palm, Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and Hewlett-Packard are also poised to enter the market, raising speculation that BlackBerry's days as market leader may be over in any event. Meanwhile investors will have to bet on whether or not RIM and NTP will settle their differences.

Thursday, February 23, 2006 - BANGKOK, Thailand - A ruling was announced that Panthongtae Shinawatra, 27, the son of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, violated disclosure laws in his family's sale of Shin Corp stock and will likely be fined. The verdict follows public outcry over the 1.9 billion dollar tax-free sale of stock in Shin Corp (the telecom giant Thaksin Shinawatra founded before entering politics) to Singapore's state-owned investment firm Temasek in January. Panthongtae Shinawatra faces a maximum of two years in jail and a 500,000-baht (12,800 US dollar) fine, but Thai SEC officials said Thursday the violations were not serious, and a fine will be set within two weeks.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - JAKARTA, Indonesia - Production at the world's largest gold and copper mine, the Grasberg mine in Indonesia's remote Papua province, was suspended on Wednesday. Around 400 illegal miners blocked the road leading to the site with wood and stone barricades. The protest followed clashes Tuesday when police and company security guards tried to disperse the miners, who earn their living retrieving gold from waste rock dumped by the mine, said Wangsadisastra. The mine is run by a local unit of New Orleans-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.

Friday, February 17, 2006 - SHENZHEN, China - Netac, the Chinese flash-memory maker said it has filed a lawsuit against United States rival PNY Technologies in the Eastern District Federal Court in Texas. The lawsuit seeks damages for alleged infringements of one of its patents. Although Chinese companies typically face allegations of patent and copyright violations and piracy inside China, they rarely bring such charges against their foreign competitors.

Thursday, February 16, 2006 - JAKARTA, Indonesia - On Thursday the local subsidiary of Newmont Mining Corporation agreed to pay Indonesia $30 million in an out-of-court settlement. In exchange for the Indonesian government dropping a civil case the settlement will be paid over 10 years to fund environmental monitoring and community development around the gold mine. In the ongoing criminal trial of Richard Ness, the American president director of Newmont Minahasa Raya, the Denver-based company's Indonesian subsidiary, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. He is accused of sickening villagers by knowingly dumping tons of toxic arsenic and other heavy waste metals into Buyat Bay on Sulawesi Island. A verdict is expected later this year.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc.'s stock price dropped again by more than 4 percent Monday. The drop emphasizes a recent shift in the mood of investors who have become more critical about the online search engine leader. Risks threaten the company's profit margins, and to cut its market value in half. The gloom scenario for Google, whose market value has plunged by 27 percent during the past month, has wiped out nearly $40 billion in shareholder wealth. Google's shares fell $16.91, or 4.7 percent, to close at $345.70 on the Nasdaq Stock Market on Monday. The shares peaked at $475.11 on January 11, 2006.

Monday, February 13, 2006 - BARCELONA, Spain - Microsoft Corporation has won backing from major cellular networks for a new generation of phones designed to displace the need for Blackberry. The Microsoft partnerships, with operators including Vodafone and Cingular, were announced Monday at a mobile industry gathering in Spain. The competition could spell more trouble for the embattled Blackberry and other niche e-mail technologies. Unlike the Blackberry and its peers, phones running Microsoft's latest Windows Mobile operating system can receive e-mails "pushed" directly from servers that handle a company's messaging — without the need for a separate mobile server or additional license payments.

Saturday, February 11, 2006 - SHANGHAI, China - Late Friday night, a poisonous gas leak at a coal mine killed 12 workers in central China and left three others missing. This is only the latest disaster to strike China's mines, many of them illegal, are considered the most dangerous in the world. According to a report by the Chinese government's National Development and Reform Commission on Friday nearly 6,000 people died in accidents in China's coal mines last year. The proportion of those killed in major disasters rose sharply, with the total number of fatalities from 3,341 coal mine explosions, fires and floods at 5,986, nearly level with the 6,027 people killed in 2004.

Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - TOKYO, Japan - Toyota Motor Corporation said Wednesday it will increase output capacity at a new assembly plant it is building in Canada. Toyota record of solid growth is expected to put it ahead of General Motors as the world's largest automaker.

Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - WASHINGTON - New Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is set to get down to work today. Federal Reserve officials sat down on Tuesday (January 31, 2006) to discuss and raise interest rates for the 14th straight time. Another quarter-percentage point rate increase had been universally expected, taking the federal funds rate to 4.5 percent. Tuesday's meeting was also the last day in the job for Alan Greenspan after 18-1/2 years as chairman of the central bank.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006 - Los Angeles - The board of Walt Disney Company authorized its Chief Executive Robert Iger to make an offer to buy Pixar Animation Studios Inc. Both boards of directors have approved the deal expected to close this summer, which calls for 2.3 Disney shares to be issued for each Pixar share (a $7.4 billion all-stock transaction). The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the Walt Disney Company was in serious talks for possible acquisition of Pixar Animation Studio. That acquisition would make Pixar CEO Steve Jobs (also head of Apple Computer Inc.) a member of Disney's board and its single largest shareholder.

Monday, January 23, 2006 - DEARBORN, Michigan - Ford Motor Company, the nation's second-largest automaker, said it will cut 25,000 to 30,000 jobs and close 14 facilities by 2012 as part of a restructuring program designed to reverse its $1.6 billion loss last year in North American operations.

Monday, January 23, 2006 - TOKYO - Japan's benchmark stock index fell sharply Monday morning as the market's unease continued over an ongoing criminal probe into prominent Internet company Livedoor Co.

Hoover's Business Information

More Business at Law Links™.

Friday, January 13, 2006 - PHILADELPHIA - A former Genentech Inc. employee, Paul McDermott, has accused the biotechnology company and marketing partner Biogen Idec Inc. of illegally promoting cancer drug Rituxan as a treatment for arthritis, a use not yet approved by regulators. McDermott also claimed Genentech fired him in retaliation for bringing the matter to the attention of Genentech executives. The whistleblower suit was originally filed in July 2005, but was filed under seal until December, when the Justice Department declined to intervene in the case and requested that the lawsuit be unsealed.

Monday, January 9, 2006 - Madison, Wisconsin - Scott+Scott, LLC, filed an amended lawsuit against Great Wolf Resorts, Inc., headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin. The original suit filed on December 8, 2005, now includes an expanded securities fraud and negligence class action complaint in the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin (05-C-0687-C) against Great Wolf. New parties added to the suit include: Citigroup Global Markets, Inc., A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc., Raymond James & Associates Inc., Calyon Securities (USA), Societe Generale, ThinkEquity Partners, LLC, and auditors Rubin, Brown, Gornstein & Co., LLP, and Deloitte and Touche.

Friday, January 6, 2006 - BEIJING - It was announced Friday that the bill trading volume of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) broke one trillion yuan (US$123.9 billion) for the first time in 2005, topping 1.0087 trillion yuan.

Wednesday, January 4, 2006 - WASHINGTON - The Securities Exchange Commission, a federal agency, announced new guidelines for fining U.S. companies for fraudulent conduct. The guidelines addressed an issue that has split securities regulators along political lines, and are meant to bring "clarity, consistency and predictability" to the SEC's enforcement efforts, agency chairman Christopher Cox said at a news conference.

Monday, January 2, 2006 - SHANGHAI, China - The Seattle-based coffee giant Starbucks won a two-year legal battle over its trademark and copyright against Xingbake Coffee Co., a Chinese chain, that Starbucks claimed had copied the U.S. company's logo and name. In Chinese, the word "xing" means "star", and "bake" (bah-kuh) was said to be a phonetic rendition of "-bucks." A Shanghai court ordered Xingbake to pay 500,000 yuan (62,500 dollars) in damages, after the court found Xingbake had infringed upon Starbucks' trademark.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005 - DENVER - Former Qwest Communications CEO Joseph Nacchio was indicted by a federal grand jury on 42 counts of insider trading. Nacchio is accused of illegally selling off over $100 million in stock after privately learning that his company faced a series of financial risks and setbacks.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005 - WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve voted unanimously to lift interest rates to the highest level in 4 1/2 years. At least one more increase in borrowing costs may be ahead to keep inflation under control, but indications are that the 18-month rate-raising campaign (13 consecutive increases since June 2004 of one-quarter percentage point to 4.25 percent) was winding down.

Thursday, October 6, 2005 - WASHINGTON - Federal Environmental Protection Agency authorities and General Electric Company struck a deal on dredging PCB-contaminated sediment from the Hudson River. It is expected that the deal will move forward the delayed Superfund cleanup plan. Tuesday, August 2, 2005 - TORONTO, Ontario - Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce agreed to pay a $2.4 billion settlement to resolve investors' claims that it helped hide losses at Enron Corporation. The Toronto-based bank is Canada's fifth-largest financial institution and the operator of the securities firm CIBC World Markets. Similar agreements with Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and others, bring the total Enron settlements to more than $7 billion.

Friday, July 8, 2005 - CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - The Chicago Tribune has reported that the Washington Nationals baseball team, have become the business interest of prominent Chicago trial and appellate attorney Jack Ring. Ring, is reported to have told the Tribune on Monday that he is helping Stan Kasten buy the Nationals, who are now being run by Major League Baseball. Kasten, a longtime friend of Commissioner Bud Selig, is also the former president of the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Hawks and a former vice president in the Turner Broadcasting Group.

Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - Former HealthSouth Corp. CEO Richard Scrushy was acquitted after twenty-one days of jury deliberations in his five-month fraud trial. U.S. District Judge Karon Bowdre worked to prevent the case against the former HealthSouth Corp. CEO from winding up in a deadlocked jury and mistrial. The verdict dealt the federal government a major blow in its recent efforts to prosecute corportate executives for financial misdeeds. HealthSouth Corp., is a provider of rehabilitation, diagnostics, and other health care services. The company recently received a $150 million credit line which it plans to use to pay off debt.