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Business Digest
State puts Cascade National under receivership

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Cascade National Insurance sells auto and commercial trucking policies in several states and markets workers' compensation coverage in California.

Kreidler assured policyholders that coverage with Cascade would remain in effect as long as premiums were paid and current. Deputy Receiver Marshall McGinnis, who will handle Cascade's day-to-day operations, went to its offices yesterday afternoon under authority of a Thurston County Superior Court order.

Seattle Tower

Trinity purchases landmark building

Bellevue's Trinity Real Estate has bought the Seattle Tower office building, a 76-year-old landmark at Third Avenue and University Street.

Trinity paid $19 million for the 27-story building, which is considered one of the first examples of art-deco architecture in downtown Seattle.

The company, which is working with Helix Investment Partners, plans to spend $2 million renovating the office tower. The upgrades will include restoring the floodlights that once illuminated the 160,000-square-foot building's mountain-peak inspired facade.

Trinity, started three years ago by real-estate veterans Richard Leider and Mike Shields, plans to buy two or three major properties a year.

Nintendo

500,000 handheld DS players sold
 
Nintendo is announcing today that it sold 500,000 of its handheld DS players last week — about 90 percent of the supply available in stores. It also sold 800,000 Game Boy Advance players during that time, setting a one-week sales record for handheld game players. The company said it expects to sell 1 million DS units in North America this year. Last week, it increased its shipment forecast for the DS to 5 million units from 3.5 million units worldwide by the end of March.

Microsoft

Anti-piracy probe in Europe halted

The European Commission in Brussels has stopped the clock on its review of Microsoft and Time Warner's purchase of U.S. anti-piracy software maker ContentGuard, a spokesman for the EU executive said yesterday.

The transaction changed radically last week when French technology company Thomson joined Microsoft and Time Warner in the deal.

But the commission has not yet been formally notified of that change, which it found troubling as it continued to review the old version of the deal.

At this point the commission is seeking information only from Microsoft and Time Warner.

Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd said the effect of the addition of Thomson will not be clear until the panel learns how the new deal is structured.

Compiled from Seattle Times business staff and Reuters