Trident Seafoods strikes deal with Ocean Beauty
Seattle-based Trident Seafoods, one of the industry's biggest players, would grow even larger under a deal announced Monday to buy the processing assets of another major company based here, Ocean Beauty Seafoods.
The letter of intent signed by the companies also calls for a joint venture that will combine their smoked-fish production and Ocean Beauty's seafood distribution businesses. Terms were not disclosed.
The companies said existing Trident and Ocean Beauty processing plants will continue operating as previously planned for 2006.
Last summer SeaFood Business magazine ranked Trident Seafoods as the nation's largest seafood company, with $800 million in 2004 revenue. Ocean Beauty was eighth. Earlier this month, Trident said it would buy some the surimi business and Louis Kemp brand from ConAgra.
Longview FibreTree-farm firm reviewing bid
Longview Fibre, which owns and runs tree farms in Washington and Oregon, is reviewing an unsolicited takeover bid by Campbell Group and Obsidian Finance Group after getting more information on the offer.
The Portland buyout firms provided more data on "the potential financing and structure" of the bid, the Longview company said. It had rejected their $1.33 billion bid earlier this month.
9-cent dividend payable June 8
Microsoft said Monday that the company's board has declared a quarterly dividend of 9 cents a share, maintaining it at the same level as the previous quarter, when it was raised a penny. The dividend will be payable June 8 to shareholders of record on May 17.
Todd ShipyardsBoard agrees to $4 dividend
Todd Shipyards, which builds and repairs military and commercial vessels, said Monday its board has agreed to a special one-time cash dividend of $4, or about $22 million total, pending shareholders' OK.
Todd also said it would increase its quarterly dividend 50 percent to 15 cents.
The Seattle company said shareholders of record as of April 17 will vote May 23 on adjustments that would protect employees with unexercised stock options as the share price adjusts due to the special dividend.
If the adjustments are approved, the company expects the record date for the special dividend will be June 5, and the dividend will be paid June 20.
The regular quarterly dividend is payable June 23 to shareholders of record as of June 8.
The news pushed Todd shares up $1.75, or 6.2 percent, to $30 Monday.
UWHenry Levy new department chair
Longtime University of Washington professor Henry Levy will become the new chairman of the Computer Science & Engineering Department at the beginning of April, taking over the post from David Notkin.
Levy, an expert in operating systems and computer architecture, has worked at the UW since 1983. Most recently, he supervised the design and construction of the new Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering.
McClatchyChain awaits news on bids for 12 papers
PHILADELPHIA — McClatchy expects to hear today from potential buyers of 12 newspapers it plans to sell as part of a deal to acquire larger rival Knight Ridder, sources familiar with the situation said.
McClatchy agreed earlier this month to buy Knight Ridder for $4.5 billion, ending an auction process that started in November. McClatchy plans to keep the newspapers that fit best with its operations and sell the rest, which could be worth around $1.5 billion.
After announcing the deal, McClatchy immediately circled back to top U.S. newspaper company Gannett, Denver publisher MediaNews Group and other parties that had been involved in the bidding for Knight Ridder to gauge their interest in buying the newspapers, the people familiar with the situation said.
The piecemeal sales offer Gannett, MediaNews and other smaller publishers a rare chance to win control of certain markets in states such as California, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.
Two of the papers on the block are among Knight Ridder's largest — California's San Jose Mercury News and the underperforming flagship Philadelphia Inquirer.
DelphiIncentive offered to coax 35% pay cut
Delphi has offered United Auto Workers (UAW) union members a payment of $50,000 each in exchange for a 35 percent pay cut, according to a copy of the proposal obtained by Bloomberg News.
The offer is contingent on General Motors, Delphi's former parent, helping pay the wages of Delphi workers, the March 24 contract proposal said. Hourly pay for Delphi workers would drop by $11, to $16.50. If GM doesn't help out, wages for longtime Delphi employees would fall to as low as $12 an hour from $27.50, the proposal said.
The offer was delivered to Delphi's UAW locals Monday, three days before Delphi Chief Executive Officer Steve Miller's deadline for an agreement. Miller has threatened to ask a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge to cancel contracts on March 31 if there's no new accord. The UAW has threatened to strike if the court allows the contracts to be thrown out.
"If today's offer is what the International UAW gives the locals for ratification, my people are going to be standing out there with picket signs," said George Anthony, bargaining chairman of UAW Local 292 at a Delphi electrical-components plant in Kokomo, Ind.
GM, Delphi's biggest customer, hasn't yet agreed to subsidize the supplier's wages, the proposal said.
ComcastTalk not cheap with "Digital Voice"
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Comcast is introducing a new phone service today that will use Internet technology and present the region's telephone companies with their strongest challenger yet.
"Digital Voice" will let users perform tricks that they cannot do with conventional phones, such as get their voice messages from home sent to their e-mail at work. By using Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, voice calls get chopped up into data just like e-mail or Web pages, and reassembled on the other end of a call.
But will customers pay for it? Comcast will charge $40 a month for Digital Voice if the customer also buys cable and high-speed Internet, and even more for Digital Voice alone.
Upstart VoIP providers such as Vonage charge as little as $15 a month, and even phone giants like Qwest and AT&T charge only $30 a month.
Comcast officials say they're not competing against cheaper VoIP providers. The nation's largest cable provider says it wants to lure conventional home phone-service customers from Qwest Communications International, Sprint Nextel and Frontier Communications.
So far, Comcast has only 200,000 customers in a little more than 20 markets on Digital Voice, but it has 1.2 million conventional phone customers. It expects 20 percent market penetration in five years, said David Diers, vice president of telephony for Comcast.
Many VoIP services allow people to make local calls while on the road, but then don't automatically tie into E-911 emergency dispatch systems that see an address for each 911. Comcast solved that problem by requiring its phones to stay put, just like a traditional home phone.
ComcastCurrent TV to see wider distribution
NEW YORK — Comcast, the nation's largest cable provider, said Monday it has agreed to significantly increase distribution of the television network founded by former Vice President Al Gore, saying the network will now reach 8 million customers.
Comcast said the agreement will increase distribution of the network, Current TV, in nearly all of its systems across the country by June 1. The deal means 8 million Comcast customers will have access to the network, up from 500,000. It also expands the network's overall distribution from 20 million to 28 million U.S. households.
Matt Bond, executive vice president of content acquisition for Comcast, said in a statement that "Current has a dedicated and growing audience, and we are pleased to make it available to more of our digital cable customers."
Current TV launched Aug. 1 with nonfiction segments on subjects ranging from music to politics to parenting.
Yahoo!"Plus" service to be subtracted
Yahoo!, owner of the most-visited U.S. Web site, will halt a monthly subscription service that provides anti-virus software, expanded e-mail storage, online music and home pages after it failed to gain popularity.
Yahoo Plus, which cost from $3.95 a month, will be discontinued April 22, said Nicole Leverich, a spokeswoman for Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo.
The Yahoo Plus tools will continue part of the company's high-speed Internet access service through agreements with companies including AT&T. Stopping the separate subscription service will let Yahoo focus on other products, Leverich said. She said subscribers won't lose any personal information.
"It made sense for us to focus our energies on the services our users most want and use," Leverich said in an interview.
Oil refiner predicts cash-flow gusher
Tesoro, the second-biggest oil refiner in the West, expects construction of new refinery units to increase cash flow by about $385 million a year when the projects are completed in late 2007 or early 2008, a company executive said.
Construction of new cokers at Tesoro's Anacortes refinery in Washington and the Golden Eagle refinery in Martinez, Calif., will enable the San Antonio, Texas, company to process less-costly grades of oil, Bill Haywood, senior vice president for refining, said in an interview last week.
A coker applies heat and pressure through a network of pipes and towers to convert heavier petroleum-based components into lighter oils used to make gasoline and diesel.
The Anacortes coker, being built at a cost of $250 million, will be capable of processing about 25,000 barrels of oil a day, Haywood said.
Federal ReserveQuiz question No. 1: Why the big talons?
The Federal Reserve on Monday launched a Web page geared just for youngsters from 11 to 14 years old. A cartoon of a smart-looking eagle — with really big talons — is tour guide of sorts for the site, www.federalreserve.gov/kids, which offers a dose of Fed history.
And since schoolchildren are accustomed to tests, there's even a 10-question quiz:
When was the Federal Reserve Board created and by whom? What is a primary responsibility of the Federal Open Market Committee? Where is the Fed's Board of Governors located?
The kids page is part of the Fed's effort to bolster financial literacy among young people.
Compiled from Seattle Times staff, Bloomberg News, The Associated Press and Reuters.