GreenPoint Mortgage office in Bellevue closes, lays off 41

Pacific Northwest

GreenPoint Mortgage

The national closure of GreenPoint Mortgage, which is anticipated to eliminate 1,900 jobs by year's end, has hit the Northwest. GreenPoint's Bellevue office informed the state's Employment Security Department on Friday that it was immediately laying off its 41 workers and permanently shuttering its office on 120th Avenue Northeast.

GreenPoint, which had 31 locations in 19 states, specialized in no-documentation loans for borrowers choosing not to fully document their income. It has said it will honor commitments to borrowers whose loans are already in the pipeline.

GreenPoint is owned by Capital One Financial and headquartered in Novato, Calif. It cited the disruption in the secondary mortgage markets as the reason for the closure.

Blue Nile

Paccar treasurer named new CFO

Online jewelry retailer Blue Nile said it named Robin Easton, now treasurer at truck maker Paccar in Bellevue, as its new chief financial officer.

Easton will join Seattle-based Blue Nile on Sept. 10.

Diane Irvine, Blue Nile's CFO since 1999 who was promoted to president in February, will fully transition to her new role after Easton's arrival, the company said in a statement.

Blue Nile previously named Scott Devitt, a managing director and senior analyst at Stifel Nicolaus & Co. in Manassas, Va., as its CFO. He had "a change of heart" influenced by the need to relocate his family, Blue Nile said.

Pacific Northwest

Boeing

Contract won for moon spaceship

NASA on Tuesday awarded a contract worth up to $1.13 billion to Boeing to build a key part of its multibillion-dollar rocket system to send astronauts back to the moon.

Boeing, which had worked on every NASA manned spaceship in the past, had been shut out of three earlier large contracts for NASA's new spaceship and its plans to return to the moon. The new base contract is worth $514.7 million with an additional $610 million in options.

The new contract is to build the Ares I upper stage of the rocket, which would take astronauts on a short but crucial second phase of their trip to the moon. Most of the upper-stage work will be done at the Michoud assembly plant in New Orleans and other work will be done near Huntsville, Ala.

Cost-U-Less

Bellevue workers await word on jobs

Cost-U-Less President and CEO Jeffrey Meder said Tuesday it's not yet clear how many of the company's 40 Bellevue employees will keep their jobs after a planned purchase by the North West Co. Fund of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The two companies announced late Monday that North West will buy Bellevue-based Cost-U-Less for about $52.2 million, pending shareholder approval. Cost-U-Less operates 11 midsize warehouse stores in island communities in Hawaii, the South Pacific and the Caribbean. North West operates food markets in remote areas of Alaska and Canada.

"The transition is still being developed, so it's too early to say definitively how much consolidation there will be," Meder said.

Cost-U-Less stock rose 90 cents, or 8.6 percent, to $11.41 Tuesday. North West is offering $11.75 a share for Cost-U-Less.

CombiMatrix

Court asked to seal portions of lawsuit

Local biotech CombiMatrix asked a U.S. court to seal at least portions of a lawsuit against the company by its former associate general counsel, Jeffrey Oster. The reason, according to a document filed earlier this month by CombiMatrix's lawyers, is that Oster's complaint revealed sensitive information "that would be of potential value to its competitors."

The motion will be heard Sept. 7. according to a court document.

Oster alleges that he was fired for raising objections when CombiMatrix failed to disclose to shareholders that a much-touted deal with computer chip-maker Intel had been terminated.

Columbia Paint

Sherwin-Williams to acquire company

Columbia Paint & Coatings, a Spokane-based manufacturer and distributor that operates 41 stores in the Western U.S., has agreed to be acquired by Sherwin-Williams.

Columbia's paints and coatings will continue to be sold through its own stores, said Sherwin CEO Christopher Connor. Terms of the purchase were not disclosed.

Columbia, which has 350 employees, sells to professional painting contractors, builders and do-it-yourselfers.

Nation and World

Juniper Networks

Backdating charges settled with SEC

Networking-equipment maker Juniper Networks on Tuesday became the fifth company in recent months to settle federal allegations of improper backdating of stock options, after being accused by regulators of concealing hundreds of millions of dollars in options expenses from investors.

Juniper was not fined under the settlement of civil fraud charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The SEC also sued Lisa Berry, who was a general counsel of KLA-Tencor and later of Juniper, accusing her of repeatedly backdating option grants from 1997 to 2003 and creating phony documents to enable the process.

Berry, through her attorney, disputed the SEC's allegations. The SEC is seeking unspecified civil fines and restitution against Berry and an order barring her from serving as an officer or director of any public company.

Amgen

Judge says Roche infringes on patent

A federal judge has ruled that Roche's Mircera anti-anemia drug infringes upon a patent held by Amgen, the company said Tuesday, but a trial will still begin next week to decide whether Mircera infringes upon other Amgen patents.

Judge William Young in Boston granted Amgen's motion for summary judgment that Mircera, which is undergoing U.S. regulatory review, violates an Amgen pharmaceutical composition patent. Amgen also alleges Mircera violates other patents.

Amgen, which has about 1,100 employees in Seattle and Bothell, sells blockbuster anti-anemia drugs Aranesp and Epogen. It has alleged that Roche's plan to sell Mircera in the U.S. would violate its patents. Roche has disputed these allegations, saying the Amgen patents are invalid and not infringed.

In a statement Tuesday, Switzerland-based Roche said it disagreed with the judge's decision, but "the ruling does not determine the ultimate validity of any Amgen patents."

Google

High-ranking job will be open soon

Google said Tuesday that its chief financial officer will retire by the end of the year, creating the highest-ranking job opening at the Internet search leader since it went public three years ago.

George Reyes, Google's CFO since 2002, will stay on the job while he helps the Mountain View-based company find his successor. The transition is expected to be completed before January.

In a statement announcing his decision, Reyes, 53, didn't say why he decided to retire.

EarthLink

900 jobs will be cut, four offices to close

Internet service provider EarthLink said Tuesday that it would cut 900 jobs — or about half its work force — and close four offices in an effort to reduce operating costs. EarthLink shares climbed 7 percent on the news.

The moves come as the company continues struggling to generate revenues as dial-up access customers turn to high-speed alternatives from cable and phone companies.

More actions could be announced by the year's end but no more cuts are expected, said Rolla Huff, the Atlanta-based company's president and chief executive. As part of the plan, EarthLink also said it will repurchase $200 million of its stock.

State Street

Shares plunge over investments

State Street Corp. has nearly $29 billion in exposure to a type of investment that has recently contributed to turmoil in world financial markets, according to a regulatory filing by the Boston-based trust bank.

An Aug. 3 quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission puts State Street's holdings in an investment known as asset-backed commercial paper conduits at $28.81 billion as of June 30, up from $25.25 billion at the end of last year.

Shares of State Street fell $2.72, or more than 4 percent, to $61.16, after The Times of London on Tuesday reported State Street's exposure to the investments.

Also on Tuesday, The Boston Globe reported that one of State Street's bond funds has lost more than one-third of its value in recent weeks amid turmoil in financial markets.

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