Virgin Blue orders nine 737-800 jetliners

Virgin Blue Holdings, Australia's second-biggest airline, agreed to buy nine Boeing 737-800 jets valued at $634.5 million at list prices as it expands its fleet of younger, more fuel-efficient aircraft.

Boeing had previously announced the order without identifying Brisbane-based Virgin Blue as the buyer. Delivery of the jets will start in 2008, Boeing said in a statement Monday.

Stock price back to Nasdaq levels

Less than a month after implementing a one-for-10 reverse split of its common stock, Seattle digital-music company Loudeye said it's back in compliance with Nasdaq listing rules.

Loudeye had earlier faced possible delisting because its stock price had dropped below $1. Now, Loudeye said, the price has been at or above $1 for at least 10 consecutive trading days.

The stock closed Monday at $2.41, down 2 cents.

Mechanical Turk goes to work

Looking for technical experts to produce content for its enterprise software-diagnostics system, Bellevue startup iConclude said Monday it had turned to Mechanical Turk, the online labor provisioning service Amazon.com is testing.

Already, 700 technology experts have expressed interest in the arrangement, in which they share bits of expertise and help produce content in return for payments that so far range between $1 and $10.

Hiring consultants to perform the same work would cost more than $100,000, estimated Sunny Gupta, iConclude CEO.

Most of the content produced via Mechanical Turk will eventually be shared broadly as iConclude moves toward an open-source approach to its products for diagnosing and triaging datacenter problems.

DRM software opens to others

Seattle-based Melodeo plans to announce today it is making its digital-rights management (DRM) software available to the open-source community.

Melodeo has been using the DRM for two years to protect music on mobile phones. Releasing it will increase market opportunities for the company, which is building music and podcasting services for the mobile phone, said Chief Executive Jim Billmaier.

The code, which can run on any network and any device, will be available at http://pachydrm.org. Melodeo is offering three types of programs that range from free to 5 cents for each installed device.

Forefront's focus: security for business

Microsoft outlined its security products for businesses Monday and rebranded them under the name Forefront.

The company launched its ISA Server 2006, which is designed to help IT professionals guard their companies' networks from attack while still allowing employees to access data remotely.

One of the first offerings under the new brand is Forefront Client Security, due out for testing in the fourth quarter and scheduled for sale in the first half of 2007. The software, which helps manage security on individual computers in a network, is designed to mesh with existing Microsoft products.

Microsoft

LifeCams designed to work with IM

Microsoft is introducing a line of Webcams today, the company's first entry into this corner of the hardware market.

It's positioning its line of LifeCams as a complement to its instant-messenger application with features including a speed-dial button on the camera that immediately opens a list of contacts who are currently online and able to participate in a video chat.

The high-end model, which retails for $99.95, has a 1.3-megapixel video camera and a wide-angle lens that can fit three people in the frame. A lesser model is priced at $49.95, but both include noise-canceling microphones.

The Webcams will compete with models made by Logitech, Creative and other manufacturers.

Northwest Airlines

Flight attendants back off strike threat

Bankrupt Northwest Airlines and its flight attendants reached a sort of truce on Monday, with a new round of talks planned and threat of a strike forestalled.

The negotiations to begin Wednesday will defuse, for now, a showdown that began June 6 when 80 percent of voting flight attendants rejected pay cuts and changes to work rules that their union leaders had negotiated to save the airline $195 million annually.

That prompted Northwest to seek permission from its bankruptcy judge to nix its contract with flight attendants and impose its own terms — an action the union warned could provoke a strike.

But on Monday, the union said Northwest agreed not to impose its terms until at least June 30, and the union promised not to strike until at least then. The union said it agreed to give the company a 15-day notice before striking if it decides to back out of the agreement.

Varig

Airline could close unless offer goes up

Varig, Brazil's biggest international airline, may shut down as early as this week unless the group seeking to buy it from bankruptcy doubles its cash offer, the carrier said in a court filing Monday.

Bankruptcy Judge Luiz Roberto Ayoub will approve the sale only if NV Participações, a company controlled by a group of pilots and flight attendants, increases the amount of cash in its bid to $346 million from $125 million, Varig said in papers filed with a federal bankruptcy court in New York. As recently as December, Varig was Latin America's biggest airline.

"This is a serious proposal," Ayoub told reporters at a news conference in Rio de Janeiro. "We will accept it if they meet the conditions we outlined."

A shutdown of 79-year-old Varig would put an end to Brazil's oldest airline and cost about 9,000 employees their jobs. Creditors such General Electric, Petrobrás and the national airport authority, who are owed $3 billion, would be forced to write off their losses, as the airline has no tangible assets.

Broker's 2nd-quarter profit rises 48%

Lehman Brothers reported profit rose 48 percent in its fiscal second quarter, but worries about how eroding financial markets could cut into earnings of big Wall Street firms sent shares sharply lower Monday.

Global expansion of Lehman's investment-banking and equities-trading businesses helped the New York-based investment firm achieve its second-highest quarterly profit.

Income applicable to common stock rose to $986 million, or $1.69 per share, for the quarter ending May 31 compared with $664 million, or $1.13 per share, in the second quarter a year ago. The earnings figures are after preferred stock payments for both periods.

Revenue for the second quarter rose to $4.41 billion from $3.28 billion last year.

Results topped Wall Street projections for the second quarter in a row. Analysts had expected a profit of $1.60 per share on $4.18 billion in revenue, based on a survey compiled by Thomson Financial.

Firm withdraws bid for energy rival

Energy supplier Mirant said Monday it is rescinding its nearly $8 billion bid to acquire rival NRG Energy, an about-face that analysts say was not surprising given NRG's unwillingness to consider a deal. NRG shares fell more than 7 percent on the news.

Edward Muller, Mirant's chief executive, said that while the company believes a combination of the two companies would be a good idea, Mirant acknowledges a long battle is not.

In a statement on Mirant's decision to withdraw its offer, Princeton, N.J.-based NRG said that over the past two years its stock has appreciated 120 percent.

"We are poised for further value creation and look forward to the continued execution of our strategic plan," NRG said.

Mirant shares fell 7 cents to close at $24.38 Monday. NRG shares fell $3.93 to close at $46.92.

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