Itron president Neilson to retire
Itron Inc. President and Chief Operating Officer Rob Neilson will retire at the end of the year, the Spokane technology company announced this week.
Neilson has been with Itron since 1983 and was named to his current post in 2000. He joined the board of directors in 2002.
Neilson’s wife, Randi Neilson, also will retire at the end of the year as Itron’s vice president of marketing, the company announced. She has also been with the company 20 years.
Itron CEO LeRoy Nosbaum said the company’s recent restructuring makes filling Rob Neilson’s COO job unnecessary. The heads of the two main divisions for hardware and software solutions each now report directly to the CEO, Nosbaum said.
Itron will fill Randi Neilson’s job later this year.
Federated plan would add Macy’s stores
Cincinnati The number of Macy’s stores nationwide will rise to some 730 while retail shopping names such as Famous-Barr, Filene’s, Hecht’s and Kaufmann’s will disappear next year under plans outlined Thursday by Federated Department Stores Inc. for its pending takeover of May Department Stores Co.
Besides converting some 330 May stores to Macy’s, Federated plans to sell off 68 stores where the two companies have duplicate locations, 27 of them currently operated as Macy’s. The changes announced Thursday will eliminate all May nameplates except Lord & Taylor and Marshall Field’s.
Federated spokesman Jim Sluzewski said the company plans to keep the Lord & Taylor name, currently on 58 stores, while it is still studying the Marshall Field’s name, which is on 60 stores.
The pending $11 billion takeover would combine companies with a total $30 billion in annual sales.
FAA prefers Chicago’s plan for O’Hare work
Chicago The Federal Aviation Administration said in a report released Thursday it prefers the city of Chicago’s plan to expand O’Hare International Airport over other proposals to reduce congestion at one of the nation’s largest airports.
The FAA completed its final Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed expansion of O’Hare that will add runways and reconfigure existing ones to reduce delays.
The report said that compared with other alternatives, the city’s plan had the lowest level of average delays, the most savings in delay costs and minimal additional impact on air and water quality and noise levels.
The report said the FAA would continue to consider other alternatives to reducing delays.
Greenspan plays safe with own investments
Washington Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who boldly goes where few others go in the economic-policy universe, plays it safe when it comes to his own investments.
Greenspan, 79, keeps all of his holdings in money market accounts and Treasury securities, which are considered the world’s safest investment, a financial disclosure form shows.
Also, papers released Thursday show that the Fed chief avoids any appearance of conflict that might be raised by stock holdings in individual companies.
The value of his assets last year totaled between $3.3 million and $6.4 million, roughly the same as in 2003, according to new disclosure forms. The figures need only be given in broad ranges.
Greenspan’s wife, NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell, had separate investment holdings valued at between just more than $1 million and $2.5 million in 2004.
Agency takes control over Amcast pensions
Washington
A federal agency announced Thursday that is has taken responsibility for the pensions of 6,200 workers and retirees of Amcast Industrial Corp., an auto parts maker.
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. said the company, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in late 2004, met all legal criteria under federal law to transfer its pension liabilities to the pension insurance program.
The PBGC estimates that the company’s pension plan is 47 percent funded, with $77 million in assets to cover $166 million in benefit promises. The agency said it will be liable for $83 million of the $89 million shortfall.
The agency does not guarantee the same benefit a company promises its workers. The maximum annual benefit for plans taken over in 2005 is $45,614 for workers who wait until 65 to retire. Workers who retire before 65 get smaller benefits.
The Dayton, Ohio, company has production facilities in Alabama and Indiana, the PBGC said.
Walgreen settles meth ingredient accusations
Oklahoma City Walgreen Co. has agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle claims it broke state and federal laws by failing to monitor sales of over-the-counter cold medicine that can be used to make methamphetamine, authorities said Thursday.
The company also agreed to spend $1 million to monitor purchases of this medicine. It did not admit to any wrongdoing.
Tiffany Bruce, a Walgreen spokeswoman, said the company made a good-faith effort to comply with an Oklahoma law requiring cold pills containing pseudoephedrine to be kept behind a counter and their sales limited and monitored.
She said the company voluntarily restricted pseudoephedrine sales three years before passage of the law, but there were problems at some stores.
Shopping.com holders approve eBay takeover
Washington Shareholders of Internet price-comparison company Shopping.com Ltd. approved Thursday a proposed $620 million takeover by online auction house eBay Inc.
Shopping.com expects the deal to close around Aug. 30, the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Shopping.com didn’t disclose the vote tally at the special shareholder meeting called to consider the eBay deal.
Last month, eBay, of San Jose, Calif., agreed to pay $21 a share for Shopping.com, an Israeli operator of a Web site which allows consumers to compare product prices across the Internet.