Linens ‘n Things liquidators duel
Liquidators are vying for the right to run closing sales at 120 Linens ‘n Things stores, with Gordon Brothers Group ready to top a $118 million opening offer from Tiger Capital Group and SB Capital, attorneys said Tuesday.
Interest from liquidators is a good sign for the Clifton, N.J.-based retailer, which is counting on the cash from the closing sales to fuel its effort to keep hundreds of other stores open while it reorganizes.
Tiger and SB are offering to guarantee Linens ‘n Things nearly 93 percent of the estimated $128 million worth of inventory in the stores, say documents the troubled retailer filed Monday.
In those documents, Linens ‘n Things sought approval from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., to name the liquidation joint venture as opening bidder for a May 29 auction.
Gordon Brothers, a rival liquidator, said it would top the Tiger and SB bid by $1 million in cash and agree not to seek a break-up fee if it’s bested at the bidding, according to several lawyers present at the hearing.
•Merck & Co. has agreed to pay $58 million as part of a multistate settlement of allegations that its ads for the once-popular painkiller Vioxx deceptively played down the health risks.
The agreement, which includes Washington and Idaho, also calls for Merck to submit all new TV commercials for its drugs to the Food and Drug Administration for review before they can be aired. Another provision of the settlement bars the company from “ghostwriting,” a practice in which academic scientists were allegedly paid to take credit for positive research articles prepared by company-hired medical writers.
The civil settlement ends a joint three-year investigation by 29 states and the District of Columbia into Merck’s advertising practices involving Vioxx, Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett said.
Vioxx was taken off the market in 2004 after research showed it doubled the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
•The city of Chicago is suing eBay and its subsidiary StubHub for failing to collect city amusement taxes on concert and sporting event tickets sold through the Web sites.
Chicago’s amusement tax ordinance includes Internet sites that resell tickets, but eBay, which bought StubHub last year, says the 8 percent tax does not apply to it.
It’s not clear how much money is at stake, but when the city first floated the idea of going after taxes for online sales in 2006, Alderman Edward Burke estimated the city could be losing $16 million a year in taxes on Internet-based sales by ticket resellers.
•Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday it will further cut production of its pickups and large sport utility vehicles, which have seen sales plummet because of high gas prices and the slump in housing construction.
The company, anxious to hold onto its longtime lead in U.S. pickup sales, also is working on a smaller, more fuel-efficient version of its best-selling F-150 pickup that will likely hit the market in 2011, according to people who have been briefed on the company’s plans.
Ford spokeswoman Angie Kozleski confirmed that the Michigan truck plant in suburban Wayne would be shut down for five weeks starting in late June. The plant makes the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator large SUVs, both of which have seen double-digit sales drops so far this year.