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Scaled-down Boeing tanker deal gets key OK

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Levin and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the No. 2 Republican on the panel, said the committee's lease-purchase plan will be part of the defense-authorization budget that's being negotiated by a joint committee of Congress.

"As far as I know, the administration has accepted the deal," Levin said. The deal would allow the Air Force to immediately lease 20 aircraft and to buy the remaining 80 under the formal budgeting process.

A White House spokesman referred questions to the Air Force, which issued a statement saying it's "continuing to work the details on a lease-plus-purchase combination that we hope will meet with congressional approval." The service said previously that its only affordable option was to lease all the planes.

Doug Kennett, a Boeing spokesman, deferred comment to the Air Force.

The Air Force says it needs the tankers as a first step toward replacing its fleet of 544 tankers, which have been in service an average of 43 years. The Armed Services panel's plan, proposed initially by panel chairman John Warner, would save $3.8 billion through 2017 from the Air Force's plan.

Warner was not immediately available for comment, said spokesman John Ullyot.

"There are indications we are about to do that — the 20/80 proposal, which is about four-fifths of a victory," said McCain, the Senate's most strident critic of the deal to lease 100 tankers.

Air Europa orders 737s: four now, 11 expected later

CHICAGO — Boeing won an order for four planes from Spanish airline Air Europa, which plans to order 11 more.

The four 737-800s will be delivered next year, Boeing said. The order is worth $230 million based on the low-end catalog price that doesn't include discounts often given to customers.

The remaining orders also will be for 737s, Boeing said. The jet maker has won orders for 173 planes this year, and more than 80 percent have been for 737s.

Louisiana-Pacific stock sinks after downgrade

PRINCETON, N.J. — Shares of Louisiana-Pacific, the biggest North American maker of construction paneling, fell 6.8 percent yesterday after Lehman Brothers downgraded the stock on expectations that panel prices will drop from record highs.

The shares fell $1.30 to $17.80, making the Portland company the biggest decliner in the Standard & Poor's 500 index.

Analyst Peter Ruschmeier cut his rating on the stock, saying it will fall as home building slows with winter approaching, causing prices for its oriented strand board to fall by as much as half from highs of $470 per thousand square feet. The shares have more than doubled this year.

Lilly Icos to put Cialis at the fore in PGA Tour

SEATTLE — Lilly Icos, the joint venture between Eli Lilly and Icos that owns the impotence drug Cialis, said it has signed a four-year sponsorship agreement with the PGA Tour starting in 2004.

Under the agreement, Lilly Icos and the PGA Tour are creating a series of golf-themed television vignettes featuring top players from the PGA Tour and Champions Tour of older players. The spots will highlight the game's emotional connections to relaxation, preparation and confidence.

Lilly Icos is also receiving rights to advertise on scoreboards at PGA Tour events and to use the PGA Tour logo in advertising. The joint venture had previously agreed to be the title sponsor of the PGA's Western Open.

Cialis is being pitched in 45 countries outside the United States as a longer-lasting alternative to Viagra. The drug is expected to win U.S. approval within weeks.

Georgia-Pacific to close part of production in Camas

PRINCETON, N.J. — Georgia-Pacific said it will shut down an office-paper machine at a mill in Camas, Clark County, affecting about 60 jobs.

The machine makes paper used in computer printers and copiers. The shutdown will take place by the end of the first quarter of 2004, Atlanta-based Georgia- Pacific said.

The number of people who will lose their jobs hasn't been determined, Georgia-Pacific said. The mill's 1,100 employees will operate its remaining communication-papers machine and its towel, tissue and pulp operations.

Georgia-Pacific has been reducing its paper capacity and sold a 60 percent stake in its paper-distribution business last year to cope with a three-year slump in paper prices and demand. The company, the world's second-largest paper and lumber maker, is focusing on its consumer-tissue business.

Microsoft to link SEC filings with its Excel spreadsheet

SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft said yesterday that it is connecting its popular Excel spreadsheet to a vast online database of U.S. financial reports, allowing company analysts to pipe in data currently entered by hand.

The tie-up with Edgar Online, an electronic distributor of regulatory filings, demonstrates Microsoft's bet on XML, a language for computer-to-computer communications that many see as the next big development for the Internet.

For a fee, users of Microsoft's Office 2003 will be able to graph, chart and compare financial results from income and cash-flow statements, as well as balance sheets, for any of more than 10,000 companies that file with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The data will be delivered in XBRL, an implementation of XML designed for business reporting, from Edgar Online's database of filings.

Nation/World

Cisco Systems sales beat analysts' expectations

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Cisco Systems yesterday posted higher sales and profits for its fiscal first quarter, the strongest indication yet that corporate spending on networking equipment is beginning to rebound after two years of declines.

Cisco executives, who have been increasingly optimistic in recent quarters, said their "cautious optimism" continues to grow for both Cisco's own business and the outside economy.

For the three months ended Oct. 25, Cisco earned $1.09 billion, or 15 cents a share, compared with a profit of $618 million, or 8 cents a share, for the same period last year.

Sales jumped 5.3 percent, to $5.1 billion from $4.85 billion.

Excluding one-time items, the San Jose-based company earned $1.18 billion, or 17 cents a share. That compares with a profit of $1.04 billion, or 14 cents a share, a year ago.

On that basis, the results beat Wall Street's expectations. Analysts were expecting the company to post a profit of 15 cents a share on sales of $4.86 billion, according to a survey by Thomson First Call.

Second-quarter revenue is expected to grow 1 percent to 3 percent over the first quarter, said Dennis Powell, Cisco's chief financial officer. That would represent a 10 percent jump over last year's second quarter.

Compiled from Seattle Times business staff and news services.

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company