Getty Images receives 2 default notices

Getty Images received two notices of purported default on $265 million of convertible debt, after the company delayed filing its third-quarter financial report.

The notices represent 29 percent of the debt issue, Seattle-based Getty Images said Wednesday in a regulatory filing. The company is determining whether the notices are valid.

Earlier this month, Getty Images delayed filing its third-quarter results because of an internal probe into stock-option grants.

Under the covenants of the debt, the company isn't required to file results within a certain period of time, Getty Images spokesman Alan Pickerill said. Pickerill declined to estimate when the results would be filed.

Apex Learning

MK Capital leads $6M in financing

Apex Learning, a Seattle company developing digital education products, has secured $6 million in financing in a round led by Chicago-based MK Capital. Apex said it will use the money to expand its products for grades six through 12 and move into new school districts nationwide. Two MK Capital employees, Karen Buckner and Mark Koulogeorge, will join Apex's board as a result of the funding.

Cell Therapeutics

Pfizer VP joins board

Cell Therapeutics said Wednesday that Frederick Telling, a vice president of corporate policy with drug giant Pfizer, has joined the Seattle biotech company's board of directors.

Telling's job at Pfizer is to strengthen its ability to anticipate and influence regulatory and competitive trends in the pharmaceutical market.

Cell Therapeutics will now have seven members on its board, including five outside directors. A year ago, four board members resigned after a failed effort to oust fellow director and CEO James Bianco.

Boeing

Asia Pacific sales chief named

Boeing appointed Stan Deal to head commercial-airplane sales in the Asia Pacific region. He replaces Larry Dickenson, who last month was promoted to sales chief of the entire commercial-airplane division.

Deal, 42, was sales director at Boeing's now-defunct Connexion inflight Internet access unit when it was headed by Scott Carson, who led airplane sales before Dickenson and is now chief executive of the commercial-airplane unit. Deal headed Connexion in the months before the program was terminated for lack of revenue. He also briefly led sales and marketing operations at the commercial unit.

Microsoft

Zune in 2nd place after its 1st week

Microsoft's Zune took second place in the U.S. digital music-player market in its first week on sale, passing SanDisk's Sansa, market researcher NPD Group said.

Zune captured 9 percent of the market in the week ended Nov. 18, NPD said Wednesday. Apple Computer's iPod remained the leader, with a 63 percent share when measured by units sold.

"It's a good start and clearly Microsoft's retail presence and the publicity leading up to the device led to a number of customers coming out to explore the player," said Ross Rubin, an analyst for NPD, which compiles weekly retail-sales data.

Weyerhaeuser

Mill closure to cost 340 jobs in Arkansas

Weyerhaeuser said it will close an Arkansas plywood mill and eliminate 340 jobs.

The Mountain Pine mill will be closed immediately, Federal Way-based Weyerhaeuser said Wednesday. The company "determined that this mill cannot be made economically sustainable," Chief Executive Officer Steven Rogel said in a statement.

The Mountain Pine facility, which began producing lumber in the 1920s, had an annual production capacity of 240 million square feet of softwood plywood, the company said. It served as one of the sole economic engines in the central Arkansas town of 827.

Weyerhaeuser has other plywood plants in Emerson, Ark., Springfield, Ore., and Dodson and Zwolle, La.

Nation and World

General Motors

Plug-in version of SUV in works

General Motors has begun work on a plug-in hybrid power system for its Saturn Vue sport-utility vehicle that could save on gasoline use, Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said Wednesday at the Los Angeles Auto Show. He offered no timetable on when it will be available, however.

Wagoner also said GM will start offering versions of its Hummer models that could run on biofuel within three years. The Hummers have become a lightning rod for critics of vehicle fuel efficiency.

Hybrid vehicles have both electric and gasoline power systems. They save on gas consumption by shutting off the engine while idling, giving the vehicle a boost of electric power during acceleration and capturing electrical energy when the vehicle is braking.

GM already produces a hybrid Saturn vehicle — the Vue Green Line SUV — which the automaker says gets 27 miles per gallon in the city and 32 mpg on the highway. The comparable traditional-engine Vue is rated at 22 mpg in the city and 27 mpg on the highway.

Riverdeep

Software firm to buy textbook publisher

Houghton Mifflin on Wednesday agreed to a nearly $1.8 billion buyout that will pair a venerable name in educational-textbook publishing with Riverdeep, a smaller firm whose complementary strength is in educational software.

By joining Houghton Mifflin's paper-and-ink business with Riverdeep's core strength in electronics, the newly formed venture hopes to better position itself against larger rivals Pearson PLC, McGraw-Hill Cos. and Harcourt Education.

Barry O'Callaghan, Riverdeep's chairman and CEO, said the transaction seeks to "capitalize on the convergence of print and digital education platforms" and help Riverdeep draw strength from Houghton Mifflin's larger sales force.

Nestlé

Food giant looking to acquire Gerber

Nestlé, the world's largest food maker, may buy baby-food company Gerber Products along with a medical-nutrition business from Swiss drugmaker Novartis for as much as $5 billion, according to a published report.

Novartis is already in negotiations to sell Nestlé the medical-nutrition business and Nestlé executives are interested in trying to make the acquisition of Gerber part of the same deal, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited people familiar with the matter.

Novartis spokesman John Gilardi said the company had no comment about the "market speculation." In the Journal interview, Novartis CEO Daniel Vasella said his company wants to focus on its medicines business and Gerber is not part of this core business.

Nestlé spokesman François Perroud said the Swiss food company "does not comment on rumors."

Trade

Senator wants probe of Chinese logging

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden on Wednesday asked the Bush administration to investigate Chinese logging practices that he said have hurt U.S. producers of hardwood used in furniture.

In letters to the U.S. trade representative and other officials, Wyden, a Democrat, urged the administration to investigate practices ranging from subsidies of China's timber industry to possible fraudulent labeling of Chinese hardwood plywood and illegal logging.

"Over the past few years, the U.S. hardwood plywood sector has experienced a dramatic downturn, which has put the entire U.S. industry in jeopardy," Wyden wrote.

"At the same time, the Chinese hardwood plywood sector has been surging. This dramatic growth in the Chinese industry — at the apparent expense of U.S. industry — is extremely troubling because it may be based on a number of illegal trade practices," Wyden said.

Wyden, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said he would seek to hold a hearing on the issue next year.

A spokesman for U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said her office will review the letter. A message left Wednesday with the Chinese Embassy in Washington was not immediately returned.

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