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Business Digest
InfoSpace to acquire California firm

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BELLEVUE — InfoSpace is acquiring Moviso, a wireless-application provider, from Vivendi Universal for $25 million in cash. The purchase will expand the number of wireless applications InfoSpace offers.

InfoSpace said Monday that it was searching for a buyer for its online-payment-processing service. The company plans to narrow its businesses to wireless and online search and directory services.

Moviso, based in Los Angeles, has 54 employees. InfoSpace declined to comment on whether there will be layoffs.

Fife company has big day in its debut as public firm

SEATTLE — Rainier Pacific Financial Group began its life as a public company yesterday with a bang.

The Fife company, which converted to stock ownership from a mutual savings bank, soared as high as $17.05 a share before closing at $16.99.

Rainier Pacific last week sold 7.9 million shares at $10 apiece to its depositors and the employee 401(k) plan. Yesterday was the first day those shares traded on the Nasdaq National Market, under the symbol RPFG.

The stock opened at about $16; the lowest it traded at was $15.87. Nearly 4.7 million shares changed hands.

Friedman Billings Ramsey, an investment bank based in Arlington, Va., had predicted before the start of trading that Rainier Pacific stock would quickly trade up to its book value of $13.57 a share, and set a 12-month price target of $15.

Microsoft executives send mixed signs on acquisitions

Microsoft executives sent mixed messages yesterday about potential acquisitions, tantalizing investors waiting to see what the company will do with its $49 billion in cash.

Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, speaking at a technology conference in Orlando, Fla., sponsored by Gartner, a research and consulting firm, said investors should "stand by for news" of acquisitions. He declined to elaborate. But Chairman Bill Gates downplayed the news later in an interview with Bloomberg News in New York, where he launched the marketing campaign for Microsoft's new Office programs.

"I don't think he meant to suggest there was something imminent," Gates said about Ballmer's comments. "Every year we do buy some additional software companies. There's nothing in the works that he was trying to hint at there."

Analyst Rick Sherlund at Goldman Sachs — an investment bank that does business for Microsoft — said Ballmer perhaps was referring to small acquisitions to support the Office product line in the small- to midsize-business market. As for the cash, Sherlund speculated the company may pay a special dividend around January.

Oregon delays decision on Weyerhaeuser issue

SEATTLE — Oregon deferred a decision yesterday on whether to rescind Weyerhaeuser's permission to buy alder logs from state land, the head of the Oregon state land board said.

Owners of several alder mills have argued that the Federal Way company's control of more than 70 percent of the $400 million Northwest alder market should disqualify it from buying state logs.

After a three-hour hearing in Coos Bay, Ore., yesterday, the board deferred a decision until its staff can study the alternatives and make a recommendation, said board director Ann Hanus. A decision could come within weeks.

Weyerhaeuser has special permission exempting it from state rules banning companies that export logs from buying timber off state land. If Oregon rescinds the permission, opponents of the permission are expected to take their case to Washington state, where the company has a similar arrangement.

Nation/World

Qwest says it may purchase telecommunications assets

WASHINGTON — Qwest, still struggling under a $21 billion debt load, says it may use some cash from a $4.3 billion sale of a telephone-book unit to buy bargain-priced telecommunications assets.

Qwest disclosed its possible bargain-hunting in an annual 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Qwest said it may use about $4 billion from the sale of its QwestDex telephone-book business to "invest in telecommunications assets" and/or repay debt.

Wall Street has been expecting Qwest to concentrate on debt reduction, after the company avoided bankruptcy last year by agreeing to sell its telephone-book business. New investment in telecommunications assets would mark a shift in strategy for the company, analysts said.

Analysts have questioned whether Qwest, whose shares have lost 95 percent of their value since March 2000, has the financial strength to enter the bidding for the properties.

"This is a pure and unadulterated shocker," said Susan Kalla, a telecommunications analyst at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group. "It represents a 180-degree shift in strategy."

Investors group challenges Kodak's digital-photo plan

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Eastman Kodak's decision to bet its future on digital photography has touched off a battle with a potent group of dissident investors.

Investors reacted with fury last month when Kodak slashed its generous annual dividend by 72 percent to fund a major shift away from its ailing conventional film business and into the fast-growing but highly competitive digital arena.

Institutional investors led by Providence Capital are staging a forum today to examine ways to prod the world's biggest photography company to alter its new course.

The group wants Kodak to try other strategies to boost its stock, which is trading at 18-year lows. Shares rose 52 cents yesterday to close at $23.64.

Quattrone's attorneys want to reopen closing arguments

NEW YORK — Lawyers for former star technology banker Frank Quattrone told a judge yesterday they are concerned that group dynamics, not evidence, will determine the jury's verdict in the obstruction-of-justice trial.

In a closed session with U.S. District Judge Richard Owen, Quattrone lawyer John Keker said he was worried about delays in the case. The jury is to resume deliberations today after four days off.

Before the jury is whether Quattrone, a former banker at Credit Suisse First Boston, obstructed federal investigations when he encouraged employees in a December 2000 e-mail to destroy files.

On Friday, after two days of deliberation, jurors reported they were deadlocked. Following the weekend break, the trial was suspended Monday and yesterday because the wife of one juror delivered a baby boy.

Keker asked the judge to allow prosecutors and the defense to make a second round of closing arguments to "refocus the jury on what the issues are in this case."

The judge appeared cool to the request but said he had not made a decision.

Oracle reaffirms its plan to take over PeopleSoft

PARIS — Two senior Oracle executives yesterday reaffirmed their commitment to taking over U.S. business-software maker PeopleSoft despite stiff resistance from the target company and regulatory hurdles.

"We're committed to this deal. We're going to stay with it as long as it takes," Safra Catz, an Oracle executive vice president, told reporters at the Oracle World press conference in Paris.

Despite PeopleSoft's opposition to Oracle's $7.3 billion bid, Oracle will take steps to win control, including proposing an alternative list of board members, Catz said.

Compiled from Seattle Times business staff, Bloomberg News and The Associated Press.

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company