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Business Today

By wire services
Published January 27, 2005

CAPITAL ONE LAYS OFF 30 IN TAMPA: Capital One announced the layoff of 30 employees from its Tampa call center, according to a state filing. The employees in 15 different positions, including customer service managers, will have their jobs until April 1. In July, Capital One announced it would close its Tampa call center and lay off 1,100 employees.

FORMER RADISSON RIVERWALK SOLD: The former Radisson Riverwalk Hotel in downtown Tampa has changed hands and will take on a new brand after a $7-million renovation. Driftwood Hospitality Management of Jupiter bought the 282-room hotel on Ashley Drive, now called the Tampa Riverwalk Hotel, for an undisclosed price last year. When construction is completed in September, it will become the Sheraton Riverwalk Hotel Tampa.

TECO LENDERS AGREE TO PREPACKAGED FILINGS: TECO Energy Inc. said Wednesday the lenders for its Union and Gila River wholesale power projects agreed to prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings for the projects to ease the lenders' takeover of the plants. The Tampa utility also said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the ownership transfer on Monday.

SPRINT, TIGER WOODS STRIKE DEAL: Wireless carrier Sprint Corp. said Wednesday it reached a two-year agreement with TigerWoods.com to offer exclusive content for Sprint PCS customers. Features will include "voice" ringers featuring Woods announcing incoming calls, screen savers with action shots of Woods on the fairway and live updates on Woods' golf scores. Sprint plans to charge $2 to $6.49 for most TigerWoods.com content.

DELTA EXPANDING SONG SERVICE: Delta Air Lines Inc., which has been moving to transform its business to reduce costs and attract more fliers, is expanding the service of its low-fare carrier Song and installing new leadership at the subsidiary. The company, struggling with higher fuel costs and low fares, said Wednesday that by Sept. 2 Song will offer 176 daily flights, 36 more than its current schedule. It also is beefing up its coast-to-coast flights and will begin offering roundtrip service from New York to Los Angeles. Joanne Smith, Song's vice president of marketing, was named Wednesday as the new president of Song, replacing John Selvaggio, who announced in October that he was leaving.

AMAZON.COM ADDS PHOTOS: Online retail giant Amazon.com Inc. is trying to become a bigger player in the Internet's crowded search engine market with a local business directory that supplements address and phone number listings with a photographic tour covering 10 major U.S. cities. The free service, expected to be available today from Amazon search subsidiary A9.com, consists of 20-million street-level photographs that will be displayed alongside local search results. As an example of how A9's novel approach works, a Web site visitor who clicks a Yellow Pages tab and searches for Mexican restaurants will see street-level pictures of building exteriors, besides the standard listing information found in other directories.

Catalina Marketing Corp.: The St. Petersburg electronic coupon distributor ended the quarter with $119-million in cash, four times what it had in the same quarter a year ago. The company's new management plans to split the money among stock repurchases, a dividend and beefed-up efforts to develop new products. The company's new strategy is slower revenue growth combined with enhanced profitability. Earnings from continuing operations, which excludes the results from four business units sold since last summer, rose to 39 cents a share, up from 29 cents a year ago.

Eastman Kodak Co.: The world's biggest film manufacturer posted a loss in the fourth quarter, mainly because of one-time costs to cover job cuts, but the results reflected strong gains in digital photography. The company also cautioned that it found errors related to its income taxes in 2004 that might require a restatement.

Eli Lilly and Co.: The drugmaker had a fourth-quarter loss on taxes to return $8-billion in profits to the United States from abroad. Sales rose 5 percent, boosted by the attention-deficit drug Strattera and the cancer treatment Gemzar.

Starbucks Corp.: The largest U.S. chain of coffee shops said first-quarter earnings rose after the company increased prices and added more sandwiches and flavored coffee drinks to its menu.

Knight Ridder Inc.: The newspaper publisher reported Wednesday that its profit rose 8 percent in the fourth quarter compared with the same period a year ago as advertising revenues recovered in the final months of the year.

BankAtlantic Bancorp Inc.: Fourth-quarter income for the company more than doubled, and results for the year were a record.

Hershey Foods Corp.: Earnings for the nation's largest candymaker rose 17.5 percent in the fourth quarter, largely on the strength of new and limited-edition candy and snacks rolled out during the holiday season.

Gannett Co.: The largest newspaper publisher in the country reported a 5.6 percent rise in fourth-quarter profit Wednesday on a surge in political advertising on its TV stations and steady gains in newspaper advertising.

[Last modified January 27, 2005, 00:49:01]