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Northwest Digest
Sierra Entertainment losing 110 employees

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The Los Angeles-based publisher of the popular "Crash Bandicoot" and "Warcraft" series, a subsidiary of French entertainment company Vivendi Universal, is trying to slash costs amid falling sales.

Half the layoffs occurred in Los Angeles, where 425 people are still working. An additional 50 came from closing two development studios in Boston. Before the layoffs, VUG employed 1,200 in North America and 600 in Europe and Asia.

Microsoft
Calif. firm purchase reportedly in works

SEATTLE — Microsoft declined comment yesterday on a report that it may be exploring the purchase of Network Associates, a California security-software company.

Citing unnamed Wall Street sources and partners of the companies, software trade publication CRN reported yesterday that Network Associates is grooming itself for a sale and Microsoft is a likely purchaser.

A spokeswoman for Santa Clara-based Network Associates, which has a market value of $2.7 billion, could not be reached for comment yesterday afternoon. Kent Hollenbeck, a spokesman for Microsoft at the Waggener Edstrom public-relations firm, said, "We don't comment on rumors or speculation."

Simon Property
Mall manager buys factory-outlet centers

Simon Property Group, the world's largest manager of shopping malls, has agreed to buy Chelsea Property Group, the owner of 35 factory-outlet shopping centers in the U.S. and Japan, for about $3.5 billion in cash and stock.

Simon, owner of Northgate and Tacoma malls, will pay $66 a share for Chelsea, which owns the Factory Stores at North Bend. Simon also will assume debt that totaled $1.3 billion as of March 31, the company said in a statement yesterday.

Simon owns or manages 247 malls and shopping centers in North America with 197 million square feet of space, including the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.
 
Chelsea's 31 U.S. outlets lease space to retailers including Coach, Brooks Brothers, Polo Ralph Lauren and Prada.

Starbucks
Coffee firm buying Singapore operations

SINGAPORE — Starbucks, the largest U.S. coffee-shop chain, is buying its licensed operations in Singapore from its partner in the city, Bonvests Holdings.

The terms of the transaction weren't disclosed.

Seattle-based Starbucks, which has more than 7,500 retail locations globally, has 35 Starbucks stores in Singapore.

MSNBC.com
Web site names general manager

REDMOND — The news Web site MSNBC.com has appointed Charlie Tillinghast its publisher and general manager.

Tillinghast, 41, will lead efforts including the expansion of search and personalization options. He has been acting publisher and general manager since March, when his predecessor, Scott Moore, left to head the group that oversees Microsoft's MSN.com Web site.

MSNBC.com is a joint effort of Microsoft and NBC News.

Associated Grocers
Cooperative to be Haggen's supplier

SEATTLE — Associated Grocers, the Seattle-based wholesale-food cooperative, will soon become the main supplier for Bellingham-based Haggen, the state's largest independent grocer.

Haggen — which runs 31 supermarkets in Washington and Oregon under the Haggen, Top Food & Drug and Fairhaven Market brands — expects to complete the transition from its current supplier by year's end.

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