Company news
Alaska Airlines will retire all of its MD-80 jets nearly a decade ahead of schedule and fly nothing but Boeing 737s by 2009.
Brad Tilden, Alaska’s chief financial officer, said switching to a more fuel-efficient plane that requires less maintenance will save the Seattle-based carrier up to $130 million annually.
Alaska’s current fleet includes 84 737s and 26 MD-80s, made by McDonnell Douglas, which Boeing Co. acquired in 1997. By 2009, when the fleet switch is complete, Alaska said it will be flying 114 single-aisle 737s.
Alaska, a subsidiary of Alaska Air Group Inc., announced the decision Monday, saying its board of directors approved the plan March 9.
In all, Alaska has 43 Boeing 737s on firm order through 2011. It also has options for 24 and purchase rights for 27.
•Ford Motor Co. granted Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Ford Jr. a stock award valued at $4.96 million, the company said Tuesday in a regulatory filing.
The Dearborn, Mich.-based auto maker said it granted Ford 632,587 Ford stock equivalents on Friday, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Based on a price of $7.84 a share on the date of the grant, Ford’s stock award is worth about $4.96 million.
•Schering AG’s board rejected a 14.9 billion euro ($17.7 billion) takeover bid from fellow German drugmaker Merck KGaA on Tuesday, and its chief executive insisted the company was better off independent.
Schering CEO Hubertus Erlen said the directors supported his rejection of Merck’s acquisition attempt, which would create Germany’s second-biggest pharmaceutical company.
•Securities regulators filed insider-trading and fraud charges Tuesday against a handful of Madison Avenue hedge funds and their portfolio manager, claiming they made millions of dollars through illegal securities deals and short sales.
Langley Partners, North Olmsted Partners and Quantico Partners, which has since merged with Langley Partners, and portfolio manager Jeffrey Thorp agreed to pay $15.8 million to settle the civil lawsuit filed by the SEC in federal court in Washington, D.C.
Regulators said the hedge funds and Thorp, 42, of New York, made more than $7 million of illegal profits between 2000 and 2002 using complex deals that involved private investments in public securities, or “PIPE” deals.