Business in brief: S-R will end radio newscasts

Spokane – After more than a year of radio newscasts, The Spokesman-Review will shut down its newsroom broadcasts of Spokane area news, the company announced Monday.

Launched in April 2008, the news partnership gave KJRB-AM listeners hourly newscasts produced by Spokesman-Review editors and reporters.

Those newsroom newscasts will end July 3, said Shaun O’L. Higgins, director of sales and marketing for The Spokesman-Review.

Starting July 6, KJRB will air newscasts both from its staff and from news feeds provided by the newspaper’s Web site, spokesman.com. Those broadcasts will air at 6 a.m., 7 a.m., 8 a.m., noon, 4 p.m., 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.

The modified news schedule allows the newspaper and KJRB owner Mapleton Communications to continue a two-year agreement whose general provisions extend through March 2010.

Tom Sowa

Swedish firm to buy Saab

Stockholm – Bankrupt General Motors Corp. has found a buyer for Saab, unloading the last major piece of the shrinking automaker’s empire that had been on the block.

The brand will be bought by Swedish carmaker Koenigsegg Group, known for making $1.2 million super-cars that can top 240 mph.

A price was not disclosed, although GM said the acquisition would be bolstered by $600 million in financing from the European Investment Bank.

Los Angeles Times

Madoff settles with SEC

Washington – Federal regulators on Tuesday reached a settlement with disgraced money manager Bernard Madoff that prohibits him from working in the securities industry.

The Securities and Exchange Commission accepted Madoff’s settlement offer to be barred from association with any brokerage or investment firm.

Madoff has been jailed since March, when he entered a guilty plea to defrauding thousands of investors who lost billions of dollars. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 29.

Associated Press

Best Buy profits drop 15 percent

Minneapolis – Best Buy Co. Inc. is winning over customers left stranded when Circuit City closed, but it is still struggling with sluggish sales.

Best Buy said Tuesday that it gained market share in the first quarter, particularly in TVs, computers and mobile phones, even as its profit fell 15 percent.

The company earned $153 million, or 36 cents per share, in the quarter that ended May 30. Revenue rose 12 percent to $10.1 billion.

Associated Press