2 new Microsoft buildings set for Redmond

Microsoft said Monday it plans to build two new buildings totaling 550,000 square feet on land adjacent to its main Redmond campus that it bought from Safeco last year.

The company is also evaluating the potential for new construction on a 26-acre parcel north of Northeast 51st Street it purchased from Nintendo of America this summer for $42 million. Microsoft is negotiating a development agreement with the city of Redmond that will define what it can build there, a company spokeswoman said.

Also Monday, the company updated the status of a separate, three-year expansion effort it first announced in February 2006.

In addition to the previously announced 3.1 million square feet of new construction and building acquisitions, Microsoft has arranged leases in Bellevue, Redmond, Issaquah and Seattle that will provide 2.4 million square feet. That's enough room for 7,000 people, bringing the total new capacity of the expansion to 19,000. The projected cost of the expansion, to be completed in 2009, is $2 billion.

Microsoft

Musiwave bought for mobile music

Microsoft agreed to buy Openwave Systems' Musiwave to build its mobile music business.

Musiwave, based in Paris, helps European wireless-service providers sell ringtones, song downloads and music videos, Microsoft said Monday in a statement. It didn't disclose financial terms of the deal.

ZenZui

Startup to change name to Zumobi

Seattle-based ZenZui plans to announce today that it is changing its name to Zumobi, just before the December launch of the beta version of its mobile-phone software.

Zumobi is building a platform that allows people to easily get information instead of searching the Web. It includes a platform of 16 "tiles" that can be seen either all at once or one at a time.

The tiles are sponsored by major brands, such as Amazon.com, which can kick back advertising revenue to Zumobi and the carriers. Users get to choose the tiles they want on their screen.

Zumobi will be available to the public beginning Dec. 14 on some Windows Mobile devices. At that time, the application and product details will be available at www.Zumobi.com.ZenZui was launched in March after spinning off from Microsoft and raising $12 million.

Cell Therapeutics

Late-stage Zevalin trial encouraging

A late-stage international clinical trial has shown that biotech drug Zevalin has positive effects on patients with advanced follicular lymphoma, pharmaceutical giant Bayer Schering said Monday.

Seattle-based Cell Therapeutics agreed to acquire the U.S. rights for the drug from Biogen Idec, a transaction that the company expects to close this quarter. Bayer Schering markets the drug in Europe.

The acquisition of Zevalin will bring Cell Therapeutics, which currently has no commercial products, back into the biotech drug market. A company spokesman said the study's data could open the way for an application with federal authorities to expand the drug's use — currently approved for relapsed non-Hodgkins lymphoma — into other therapeutic areas.

IBM

Acquiring Cognos will cost $5 billion

IBM is making its largest acquisition ever, a deal announced Monday to buy Cognos for $5 billion in cash in hopes of keeping up with rivals in "business intelligence" software.

The acquisition would follow similar moves in the same market this year. SAP recently linked up with Business Objects for $7 billion and Oracle grabbed Hyperion Solutions for $3.3 billion. Cognos shares had soared recently on expectations that it, too, would be acquired. They leaped an additional 8 percent on Monday's news.

Business-intelligence software helps big organizations gather data in "dashboards" that can be used to model such things as the financial impact of staffing changes or marketing moves.

Cognos shares rose $4.17, or 7.9 percent, to close at $57.15 Monday. IBM shares rose 1.2 percent, or $1.20, to end at $101.45.

Google

$10M in prizes for best software

Google is offering $10 million in prizes for people who build the best software to enhance the company's upcoming cellphone operating system.

Developing a free cellphone software package will make it easier to surf the Web over mobile devices, the company contends. It also will give Google more opportunities to sell ads and services.

Winning offerings could encompass simple aesthetic improvements like personalized home screens or more complicated social-networking programs that merge data from the Web — such as maps or personal Web pages — with data from users' phones — like contact information or the phones' geographic locations.

As part of the Android Developer Challenge, a panel of judges will pick 50 winners from entries received from Jan. 2 through March 3, 2008. Those winners each will get $25,000 and be eligible for 10 awards of $100,000 and another 10 $275,000 awards.

Countrywide Financial

Lower ratings may hamper recovery

Countrywide Financial's ability to raise money and increase deposits in its banking subsidiary could be hampered if its credit ratings should be downgraded below investment grade, the mortgage lender said in a regulatory filing.

Countrywide, the nation's largest mortgage lender, said further reductions to its credit ratings would severely limit its ability to access public debt markets, according to a quarterly report filed late Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

As of Nov. 7, the three major credit agencies — Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings — had placed the company on some form of negative outlook, according to the filing.

In the latest filing, the company said some 5.8 percent of the loans in its servicing portfolio were behind in payments by 30 to 90 days as of Sept. 30, up from 4.5 percent in the year-ago quarter.

About 23.9 percent of its subprime loans made to borrowers with shaky credit histories were delinquent, up from 16.9 percent, the company said.

Constellation Brands

Fortune wines added to portfolio

Constellation Brands, the world's biggest winemaker, said Monday it is paying $885 million for the U.S. wine business of Fortune Brands.

In addition to top-seller Clos du Bois, the buyout would give Constellation the Wild Horse and Geyser Peak brands, five California wineries and more than 1,500 acres of vineyards in the Napa, Sonoma and Los Carneros grape-growing regions.

Even with its latest acquisition, Constellation will control less than 5 percent of the highly fragmented global wine market. But its share of the American market will expand 1 percent to around 20 percent.

The sale, likely to close by Dec. 31, is expected to slightly reduce both companies' earnings in 2008. Constellation is financing the deal with debt and said the purchase will add slightly to earnings per share in 2009.

OPEC

Oil futures fall $1.70 to settle at $94.62

Oil futures fell Monday but came back from earlier lows after Saudi Arabia's oil minister appeared to defuse rumors that the oil cartel might agree at a meeting this weekend to boost production.

However, Ali Naimi left open the possibility that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will agree to increase output during a meeting in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, next month.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery fell $1.70 to settle at $94.62 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after falling as low as $93.54 earlier.

Blackstone Group

Loss tied to lower real-estate fees

Blackstone Group President and Chief Operating Officer Hamilton James said Monday the slumping private-equity market might not fully rebound until major Wall Street banks get a better handle on the credit crisis.

James said the banks — pressured by massive writedowns from losses linked to subprime mortgages — will keep lending standards tight for the time being.

He believes the market for leveraged loans, which buyout funds use to finance deals, appears to be picking up after a crippling summer.

Blackstone's third-quarter loss was pinned on charges related to its initial public offering and lower real-estate fees.

Supercomputing

IBM, Intel leaders among fast crowd

IBM and Intel improved their standings Monday in the newest tally of the world's fastest 500 computers, a closely watched measure of progress in the industry.

The list, published twice a year by academic researchers, once again was topped by an IBM supercomputer in the Lawrence Livermore national nuclear lab. The BlueGene/L system, as it is known, was recently upgraded and showed the ability to perform at 478 teraflops — 478 trillion calculations per second.

Intel chips are the processors in 64 percent of the machines on the list, the largest share that the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company has ever had. Its main rival, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), showed up in 16 percent of the top 500, down from 21 percent six months ago.

IBM accounted for 46 percent of the computers on the list, while HP had 33 percent. That reversed the standing on the last list, in June, when HP became the leading manufacturer in the top 500.

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