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Business Digest
Canceled ship overhaul means 500 layoffs at Todd

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Todd expected work on the USS Sacramento to take nearly three months and employ hundreds of workers. Instead, the Navy decided to mothball the 40-year-old vessel, and Todd couldn't find other work to fill the gap, said Michael Marsh, the company's general counsel.

"A shipyard going up and down by 500 people is not big news," Marsh said.

Marsh said Todd typically has 750 to 1,200 employees, depending on its workload. The layoffs reduced the number to 880.

"We just don't know right now exactly when our workload will change enough to bring these people back," he said.

Shurgard again to miss financial filing deadline

Shurgard Storage Centers, which operates storage centers in the U.S. and Europe, said it won't file its 2003 financial statements on time, the second such delay this year, amid an audit that will likely lead the Seattle company to restate past results.

Shurgard expects to restate its past financial statements to take a full valuation allowance for deferred tax assets, the Seattle-based company said in a statement issued late Friday. The restatement will result in a reduction of the tax benefit reported for the full year in 2001 and 2002, as well as for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2003, the company said.

Shurgard had already restated earnings for 1999, 2000 and 2001. Friday's announcement means 2001 results will be restated a second time. A spokesman said the changes were prompted by new auditors hired in January after prior auditors quit. The auditors are interpreting complex accounting rules, the spokesman said.

It's the second time this month that Shurgard has postponed reporting the full-year 2003 results. The company earlier asked to delay its filing until March 30 and now plans to file its annual 10-K form with the Securities and Exchange Commission in April.

Bond insurer MBIA sells asset-management firm
 
NEW YORK — MBIA, the world's largest bond insurer, said it sold 1838 Investment Advisors to executives at the 166-year-old asset-management company and investors led by Seattle-based Orca Bay Partners.

The asset manager traces its roots back to a Philadelphia-based company founded by Francis Drexel in 1838. MBIA bought it in 1998, a decade after money managers split it off from Drexel Burnham Lambert, the securities firm that popularized junk bonds in the 1980s and collapsed amid criminal prosecutions. MBIA plans to focus on fixed-income asset management, which is more closely aligned with its main business of insuring the repayment of bonds.

Orca Bay Partners, started in 1998 by billionaire John McCaw Jr., has invested in other money management firms.

Nation / World

Judge throws out lawsuit over Winnie the Pooh profits

LOS ANGELES — A judge threw out a lawsuit against the Walt Disney Co. over Winnie the Pooh merchandise royalties, ruling yesterday that the owner of those rights unlawfully obtained confidential documents from Disney offices and trash.

Superior Court Judge Charles W. McCoy Jr. dismissed the suit with prejudice, meaning Pooh rights owner Stephen Slesinger Inc. (SSI) cannot sue again on the claim.

The decision, if it survives appeal, brings to a close a 13-year legal bid by SSI, which sought to recover millions of dollars it claims Disney owes it for Pooh-related merchandise and royalties on the sale of videotapes, DVDs and computer software. Disney has claimed those items were not covered in its 1983 licensing agreement with SSI.

SSI said it would appeal.

Study: Outsourced tech jobs create U.S. jobs in long run

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Outsourcing white-collar jobs to low-wage countries has thrown some Americans out of work, but a report predicts the trend will ultimately lower inflation, create jobs and boost productivity in the United States.

The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), in a survey for release today, acknowledges the work migration has eliminated 104,000 U.S. jobs so far, nearly 3 percent of the positions in the U.S. tech industry.

Researchers at report author Global Insight predicted demand for U.S. software engineers would drop through 2008.

But ITAA leaders emphasized that outsourcing has damaged the job market far less than the dot-com meltdown in 2000, which led to the loss of nearly 270,000 jobs.

Outsourcing slashes labor costs, allowing companies to sell goods and services at lower costs or higher profit margins. Greater profits theoretically allow companies to buy new equipment, build laboratories and conduct scientific experiments in U.S. tech hubs.

Savings from outsourcing allowed companies to create 90,000 new jobs in 2003, with more than one in 10 of them in Silicon Valley or elsewhere in California, researchers said. The report predicts that in 2008, outsourcing will create 317,000 jobs — 34,000 in California.

Amgen stock deal to yield full ownership of Tularik

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Amgen, the world's largest biotechnology company, has agreed to acquire the remaining shares of Tularik it doesn't already own for $1.3 billion in stock, broadening its ability to develop new drugs.

Amgen, which has 750 employees in Seattle, sells drugs that fight anemia, infection and arthritis.

The Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based company said yesterday the acquisition will give it five clinical programs and about 300 research scientists.

Tularik, which is based in South San Francisco, is working on treatments for cancer, inflammatory diseases, type 2 diabetes and obesity.

SEC investigating benefits for Tyson directors, officers

SPRINGDALE, Ark. — Tyson Foods, the world's largest meat producer, said yesterday regulators were conducting a formal investigation of benefits received by some board members and company officers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission was "seeking information primarily with respect to the disclosure of perquisites provided to certain directors and officers of the company," including former senior Chairman Don Tyson and current Chairman and Chief Executive John Tyson, Springdale, Ark.-based Tyson Foods said in a statement.

The company said it was fully cooperating with the SEC probe.

Tyson noted in its annual proxy statement that it regularly engages in transactions with company officials and board members.

The filing lists millions of dollars in business the company does with Tyson officials, including farm operations, an aircraft lease agreement with Tyson family members and a $5.35 million wastewater treatment agreement with an entity in which Don Tyson is a principal.

Founder tapped Adelphia for cash, ex-accountant says

NEW YORK — To help cover his cash needs, John Rigas, the founder of Adelphia Communications, had his former accountant charge the company for numerous fictitious rental guests and book a real-estate sale to the company that never closed, the accountant testified yesterday.

Christopher Thurner described how John Rigas repeatedly persuaded him to conduct transactions that Thurner thought were improper or fraudulent, once threatening his job.

In one case, Thurner reluctantly agreed to lend Rigas $20,000 but was never repaid, he testified.

Rigas is on trial on charges of conspiracy and fraud with two of his sons, Timothy and Michael, and former Adelphia Vice President Michael Mulcahey. They have pleaded not guilty. Thurner is cooperating with the government in hopes of not being prosecuted himself.

Compiled from Seattle Times business staff and Bloomberg News, The Associated Press and Dow Jones Newswires

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company