BOSTON – The Boston Red Sox baseball team has notified potential owners that they must submit binding bids by Nov. 29 and informed them that they must be prepared to submit a 1z0 percent down payment whenever requested. Seven groups have been approved for access to the team’s financial data after earlier bids were submitted and screened. In order to gain approval for the sale, John Harrington, the club’s chief executive, must submit it to team limited partners. The club hopes to complete the process by the end of the year, the Boston Globe reported.
CMGI head cuts pay to $1 a year
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
By Emilio DiSpirito IV License Partner | Engel & Völkers Oceanside Leader | The DiSpirito…
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ANDOVER – In response to CMGI’s declining fortunes – its stocks’ value plummeted to an all-time low of 60 cents this year from a high of more than $160 in early 2000 – the head of the company David S. Wetherell announced that he will reduce his salary for 2002 to $1. This fiscal year his salary was $530,000 and he got a bonus of $481,400, the Boston Globe reported. He is also rewarded with professional service fees and an assortment of stock from the company’s venture capital operations. His action is considered more symbolic than sacrificial, a gesture toward the ordinary shareholders. In the proxy statement filed with the Security and Exchange Commission the company also announced that it planned to make its first semiannual $3.8 million payment to the New England Patriots for the naming of its new stadium that it expected to open next spring in time for the soccer season. It would be the first of 15 payments the company is required to make under the agreement with the Patriots. Speculation had been that the company would sell off its naming rights in view of its financial condition.
IBM, others cutting into EMC’s pie
HOPKINTON – IBM’s expansion of its data storage business has helped to cut EMC share of the market for external shortage to 25.3 percent this year from 31.5 percent a year ago, the IDC research company has reported. IDC reported that IBM moved from fourth place with 6.8 percent of the market last year among data storage companies to second place this year with 11.6 percent. EMC’s strategy has been to cut prices on its large hardware systems while it tries to boost sales of more profitable software and services, the Boston Globe reported. Other competitors include Compaq and Sun Microsystems.
NStar Electric announces $12 million upgrade investment
BOSTON – Having recently committed $30 million to fast-track electric reliability for its service in Boston and Brookline, NStar Electric announced it would spend $12 million to solve problems with suburban service that resulted in power outages in several suburbs this past summer. Among the communities that will be affected are Arlington, Newton and Somerville, the Boston Globe reported. The State Department of Telecommunications and Energy has been holding a series of hearings examining NStar’s reliability since as many as 600,000 customers lost power this summer.
Marketing company laying off after embarrassment
WAKEFIED – Simon Worldwide Inc., a marketing company that lost its major clients after an employee was involved in rigging a McDonald’s Corp. promotion, said it will cut 215 jobs and may go out of business, Bloomberg News Service reported.
Simon’s third-quarter loss widened to $67.2 million, or $4.05 a share after the payment of preferred dividends, from $1.4 million, or 10 cents, a year ago, the company said in a statement. Simon said the 215 job cuts in the current quarter are in addition to 177 jobs eliminated in the third quarter.
Simon’s two major clients, McDonald’s and Philip Morris Cos., canceled their contracts with the company after the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation said in August that a Simon employee stole winning McDonald’s game piece worth more than $20 million in prizes. Last week Simon sued Philip Morris Cos., claiming that the tobacco company broke a $7.5 million contract.
Wakefield, Massachusetts-based Simon said that because of the loss of clients, there is “substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.”
Simon shares today fell 10 cents to 18 cents.
Analog Devices reports sharp drop in net income
NORWOOD – Analog Devices Inc., a maker of chips for high-speed communications, reported an 88 percent drop in fiscal fourth-quarter net income and said sales this quarter will miss forecasts as customers cut orders, Bloomberg News Services reported.
The company’s shares dropped as much as 5.4 percent. Net income in the quarter ended Nov. 3 fell to $24.2 million, or 6 cents a share, from $199.9 million, or 52 cents, a year earlier. Sales dropped 47 percent to $423.3 million from $805.6 million.
Analog Devices’ semiconductors are used in communications gear, computer-networking equipment and consumer-electronic devices. These markets have slumped as clients, such as Canada’s Nortel Networks Corp. and Sweden’s Ericsson AB, reduced orders and consumers scaled back purchases of computer-related products.
(Compiled from news reports and releases, print and electronic.)
