Red Lion Hotels raises $55 million
Red Lion Hotels Corp. said it raised $55 million, before underwriting expenses are deducted, in a stock offering that closed Monday.
The Spokane-based company, which owns, leases, manages or franchises 61 hotels that mostly are located in the Western U.S., said it will use the money to retire debt and for general corporate purposes.
Red Lion sold 5 million shares of common stock at $11 per share. A group of shareholders sold another about 635,000 shares in the offering, but the money raised in that sale doesn’t go to Red Lion, the company said.
Leadership class graduates June 8
The 2006 class of Leadership Spokane will graduate on June 8 in the Spokane Convention Center’s new Group Health Riverside Room.
Leadership Spokane provides leadership training and background on regional issues, and includes adult and youth programs.
The graduation will be preceded by a volunteer fair highlighting contributions to the community of nonprofits and civic organizations.
Washington Sen. Lisa Brown will be the keynote speaker at the graduation ceremony. In addition, the national Community Leadership Association will award distinguished leadership citations to Dennis Hession, mayor of Spokane and a 1989 graduate of Leadership Spokane’s adult program, and Allison Lambert, a student at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York and a 1997 graduate of the youth program.
Washington
Bernanke aside called a ‘lapse’
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday he suffered a “lapse of judgment” by talking to a CNBC reporter recently, a conversation that caused the stock market to tank when his comments were reported.
Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., asked Bernanke about the episode during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on financial literacy.
Bernanke took over the Fed job on Feb. 1. In a congressional appearance on April 27, he had raised the possibility of the Fed pausing its two-year, credit-tightening campaign. Stocks rallied that day. But on May 1, CNBC reported that Bernanke had told a CNBC reporter that investors had misinterpreted his recent congressional remarks as an indication the Fed was nearly done raising rates. Stocks – which had been up for most of the day – slumped.
Besides raising questions about Bernanke’s communications skills, the incident underscored the fact that a single word uttered by a Fed chief can move stock and bond prices.
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Euronext holders reject German bid
Shareholders of European stock-exchange operator Euronext rejected a proposal Tuesday to commit in principle to a takeover by Deutsche Boerse Group, giving a boost to a rival bid from the New York Stock Exchange.
As the matchmaking dance between some of the world’s largest stock exchanges continued, Euronext’s boards reiterated they currently prefer an offer from the NYSE Group Inc. to one proposed by the German stock exchange.
Euronext, which runs the Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Lisbon exchanges, sits at the center of the current round of stock-market consolidation, after the Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. acquired 25 percent of the London Stock Exchange PLC.
Houston
Enron jurors still without verdict
Jurors in the federal fraud and conspiracy trial of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and former chief executive Jeffrey Skilling finished a fourth day of deliberations Tuesday without reaching a verdict.
The eight-woman, four-man panel received the case last week and has deliberated for a total of about 24 hours.
The panel is slated to resume deliberations today. Jurors are deliberating Monday through Thursday.
Lay’s second trial on bank fraud charges stemming from his personal banking, tried before a judge without a jury, concluded on its third day Tuesday. The judge aims to announce his verdict after the conspiracy jury renders its decision in the Lay-Skilling trial.
Philadelphia
Investors group buying papers
McClatchy Co. is selling the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News for $562 million to a group of local investors who hope to reverse circulation declines by emphasizing local news and doing more with the Internet.
The two Philadelphia papers are being bought by a group led by advertising executive Brian Tierney and Bruce Toll, co-founder of luxury home builder Toll Brothers Inc. The papers are among 12 currently owned by Knight Ridder that McClatchy plans to sell.