Cell Therapeutics says it's low on cash

Biotech

Biotechnology company Cell Therapeutics said Friday in a regulatory filing that without a capital infusion "we will have insufficient funds to continue operations through the end of the current fiscal quarter."

"We have an immediate need to raise additional capital in the next thirty days in order to meet our operation needs," the Seattle biotech said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The company said that as of March 31, it had approximately $15.3 million in cash, securities and other current assets, compared to liabilities of $47.9 million. It subsequently raised a net $40 million in two financings.

The company has not yet reported results for the quarter ended June 30, but it said its current assets "continue to be significantly less than our total current liabilities."

Cell Therapeutics shares have fallen 80 percent this year.

Oil workers

Offshore workers in Brazil end strike

Union officials in São Paulo, Brazil, say offshore oil workers have ended their five-day strike.

The union says workers returned to their jobs as scheduled Saturday without reaching a deal with Brazil's state oil company.

The workers went on strike seeking an extra day off for every two-week shift they work on the platforms.

The striking workers rejected the offer by Petroleo Brasileiro SA for overtime pay instead of the extra day off.

The union said workers may strike again Aug. 5. Petrobras said contingency workers helped prevent the strike from affecting production levels.

Treasury secretary

Paulson seeks to reassure public

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson sought to reassure an anxious public Sunday that the banking system is sound, while also bracing people for more troubled times ahead.

"I think it's going to be months that we're working our way through this period — clearly months," he said.

Paulson said the number of troubled banks will increase as they struggle to cope with big losses on bad mortgages.

The government this month took over IndyMac after a run led it to become the largest regulated thrift to fail.

Paulson said that deposits up to $100,000 are fully insured. He said no one has lost a single penny on an insured deposit in the 75 years that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has operated.

Wireless

Ericsson may post steep profit loss

Ericsson AB, the world's largest maker of wireless networks, may report its steepest profit drop in more than three years on costs to cut 4,000 employees and waning demand for phones at the handset venture with Sony.

Net income in the second quarter fell 56 percent to $472 million, according to the median estimate of 15 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Sales at the Stockholm company, which reports today, probably rose 1 percent.

About 50 percent of commercial wireless broadband operators use Ericsson technology, the company says.

Computer hardware

State company draws up big plans

The computer-and-pen systems that Scott Adams uses to sketch his Dilbert cartoons and that Nike designers use for prototypes of apparel are in such high demand that the Vancouver, Wash., business that contributes to much of this technology is expanding.

Wacom Technology expects to open a 51,000-square-foot warehouse early next month.

"From warehouse to customer support to engineers, we've added people," said Doug Little, public-relations manager at Wacom.

Compiled from The Associated Press, Bloomberg News and The (Vancouver, Wash.) Columbian