Business & Finance
Business software maker PeopleSoft Inc. delivered the latest rebuff to its bitter rival Oracle Wednesday when PeopleSoft's board announced its unanimous decision to reject a $9.2 billion, $24-per-share takeover bid as inadequate. What's more, the board signaled it is prepared to continue its staunch resistance, no matter how shareholders might feel about the offer. The issue could come to a final vote at PeopleSoft's annual meeting next spring.
Gambling giant MGM Mirage announced plans to build Project CityCenter, a new 4,000-room mega-resort and sprawling urban development in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip that could dramatically change the commercial district, the Associated Press reported Wednesday. The massive development will be built on 66 acres, with the first phase creating 12,000 jobs when it's completed, said MGM Mirage official. Once completed, it could be the largest privately funded development in the country.
Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc., the nation's largest insurance broker, will lay off 3,000 employees, or about 5 percent of its workforce, because of fallout from a bidrigging probe by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, it announced midweek. The company said most of the layoffs would come in its risk and insurance businesses, but that its Putnam asset management firm and its Mercer human resources consulting businesses also would lose workers.
Teleflex Inc., which makes products and services for the medical, aerospace, automotive, marine, and industrial markets, plans to cut 1,600 jobs, about 7 percent of its workforce, as part of a divestiture and restructuring program, the company announced Wednesday. An international company based in Limerick, Pa., Teleflex employs about 21,000 people.
Blockbuster Inc., the largest US video rental chain, said yesterday it has contacted Hollywood Entertainment Corp. about acquiring its top rival for $700 million.
Lucent Technologies Inc. will receive an $816 million tax refund after the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation approved the company's tentative agreement with the US Internal Revenue Service. The agreement was announced Wednesday but first disclosed on Sept. 2.
