Nextel Partners exec to move to Clearwire
|
SEATTLE — Kirkland-based Nextel Partners said yesterday that Chief Operating Officer Perry Satterlee will leave the company to fill the same role at Clearwire, a high-profile company started by wireless mogul Craig McCaw.
Plans for Clearwire were unveiled earlier this month at a wireless convention in Washington, D.C. McCaw said the Kirkland company plans to provide wireless broadband Internet access at speeds 25 times faster than dial-up.
He has been stacking Clearwire's ranks with former employees from a previous company: McCaw Cellular Communications, which later became AT&T Wireless. Satterlee worked at McCaw Cellular for 12 years. Another former McCaw Cellular executive, Rob Mechaley, has taken the role of chief technology officer at Clearwire.
Nextel Partners said Satterlee will leave in mid-July and that two current executives will fill his job. Jim Ryder will become vice president of sales and marketing and Philip Gaske will become vice president of customer care.
Boeing plans to pay off bonds
CHICAGO — Boeing planned to pay off $1 billion in bonds today using proceeds from a $1.7 billion agreement to sell nonaircraft loans to General Electric.
Boeing Capital, Boeing's finance unit, will pay $526.5 million, or 105.3 percent of the principal, to redeem the $500 million, 7.1 percent notes due next year and $524 million, or 104.81 percent of the principal, to redeem the $500 million, 5.65 percent notes due in 2006.
Boeing had $14 billion in debt as of the end of the first quarter, including $8.8 billion from the finance unit.
Nation and World
Intel recalls flawed chip sets
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Less than a week after the launch of its latest chip sets, Intel said yesterday it would recall some of the products after the discovery of a manufacturing flaw that could cause computers to crash or fail to boot.
Most of the problem chips were still in the hands of computer and motherboard manufacturers, said Bill Calder, an Intel spokesman.
"The good news is we think almost none of the impacted product — or very little — has reached the end customer," he said.
The problem with the 915 G/P and 925X chip sets, launched Monday, was that a thin film applied during manufacturing was not removed, Calder said.
Wal-Mart, Rite Aid settle in drug claims
Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, and No. 3 U.S. drugstore chain Rite Aid settled charges they submitted false prescription claims for government reimbursement, the U.S. Justice Department said. Wal-Mart will pay almost $2.9 million and Rite Aid $7 million.
Retail pharmacies operated by Wal-Mart allegedly dispensed partial prescriptions due to insufficient stock, then billed the government for the full quantities, the department said. Rite Aid allegedly billed the government for drugs that were never delivered to customers.
The government health-care programs that received the bills are Medicaid, Tricare Management Activity and the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program.
Rite Aid spokeswoman Jody Cook said the company settled without admitting any wrongdoing.
Wal-Mart officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
CVS, the second-largest U.S. drugstore chain behind Walgreen, settled similar accusations in 2001, paying $4 million.
Martha Stewart sentencing delayed 8 days
Lawyers for Martha Stewart won an eight-day delay in her sentencing and plan to ask the judge in her case to give her less time behind bars than the 10 months to 16 months called for under federal guidelines.
U.S. District Judge Miriam Cedarbaum postponed sentencing to July 16, from July 8, after receiving a letter from defense lawyer Robert Morvillo. Stewart, 62, and her former Merrill Lynch broker, Peter Bacanovic, were convicted in March of obstructing justice. Prosecutors accused them of deceiving investigators examining her sale of ImClone Systems stock in December 2001.
Compiled from Seattle Times business staff, The Associated Press and Bloomberg News