NATIONAL

UnitedHealth to cut previous earnings by $1.55 billion

UnitedHealth Group Inc. said Tuesday that options backdating at the company will result in it reducing previously reported earnings by a combined $1.55 billion.

The company, one of the nation's largest managed-care providers, is among the biggest firms caught up in the backdating scandal, in which more than 140 companies are under investigation for putting erroneous dates on stock options to maximize potential profits.

WINE SALE PROBE U.S. prosecutors are investigating possible counterfeit wine sales, said auction house Christie's International on Tuesday.

Christie's in New York received a subpoena requesting information on wine sales and has been cooperating with officials, said Christie's spokespeople. London-based Christie's, the world's largest auction house, sold $58.6 million of wine last year.

FREE SHIPPING Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, is offering free shipping on items ordered online and picked up at 750 U.S. stores, betting that customers coming to collect their merchandise may be enticed to buy more.

The program will be expanded to all 3,300 U.S. Wal-Mart stores by September.

CONAGRA SUED ConAgra Foods Inc., the third-biggest U.S. food company, was sued by the daughter of a woman who died from salmonella poisoning after eating its Peter Pan peanut butter.

Edith Holec, 72, of Ripley, Miss., died from complications related to salmonella Feb. 15, a day after Omaha-based ConAgra recalled some Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter that federal authorities said may have been contaminated, law firms Parker Waichman Alonso Mark LLP and Neblett, Beard & Arsenault LLP said Tuesday.

LOCAL

Boulder company gets $32 million

Market Force Information Inc., a Boulder-based provider of mystery shopping services, said it secured $32 million in equity financing.

New investor Monitor Clipper Partners led the funding round. Existing investors Centennial Ventures, Boulder Ventures, Vista Ventures and Hercules Technology Growth Capital also participated.

AIR FARE TO MUNICH Lufthansa Airlines is offering introductory fares on its new flights from Denver to Munich, Germany, starting at $481 - a price that includes all taxes, fees and surcharges. The new service begins March 31, consisting of one daily nonstop flight each way. The introductory fare is for departures between March 31 and May 12. Passengers must complete travel by May 17.

NEW CHAIRLIFT Winter Park Resorts said it began construction on its new Panoramic Express, an $8 million detachable six-pack chairlift that will take skiers above 12,000 feet to its Parsenn Bowl area. The project is part of Intrawest's plan to invest more than $50 million in the ski area over 10 years.

ROYAL GOLD ACQUISITION Denver-based Royal Gold, Inc. will acquire Battle Mountain Gold Exploration Corp. for 1.57 million shares of Royal Gold common stock in a merger valued at about $50 million. Royal Gold also declared its second-quarter dividend of 6.5 cents per share. The dividend is payable April 20 to shareholders of record at the close of business April 5.

PAYLESS BUYS DENVER FIRM Shoe retailer Payless ShoeSource Inc. said it is buying Denver-based brand development and licensing company Collective International LP for $91 million, although it said it didn't expect the purchase to affect its fiscal year 2007 earnings.

ECONOMY

Factory orders see biggest drop in 61/2 years

Orders to U.S. factories fell by the largest amount in 6 1/2 years in January, reflecting widespread declines across a number of industries.

The Commerce Department reported total orders dropped by 5.6 percent in January, the biggest decline since July 2000, a period when the economy was slowing sharply in advance of a recession that began in 2001.

The government said that orders for big-ticket durable goods plunged by 8.7 percent, even bigger than the 7.8 percent drop that had been reported a week ago. That report, which increased worries about the economy's health, played a role in the 416-point single-day drop in the Dow Jones industrial average a week ago.

The weakness in manufacturing was led by a 19 percent fall in orders for transportation products, reflecting a 6.7 percent drop in the auto industry and a 60.2 percent plunge in demand for commercial airplanes. The airplane category had posted a huge increase in December, reflecting an unusually large number of orders to Boeing Co.

Demand also was down for primary metals, machinery and computers.

Orders for nondurable goods, such as petroleum and food, fell by 2 percent in January after a 1.5 percent rise in December.

• The Labor Department reported that productivity, the amount of output per hour of work, rose at an annual rate of 1.6 percent in the October-December period last year. That was about half the 3 percent increase the government initially estimated a month ago.

Labor costs for each unit of output soared by 6.6 percent in the fourth quarter.

THIS JUST IN...

• The Space Foundation, headquartered in Colorado Springs, promoted Frank A. Trevino Jr. to vice president, marketing and creative services.

• Denver-based STUDIO INSITE added Scottie Murphy as studio coordinator and Jessica Bagwell as landscape architect.

• Kevin J. Kuhn joined Wheeler Trigg Kennedy as a partner.

• Lakewood-based Martin/Martin Inc. Consulting Engineers promoted André H. Schlappe, Patricia J. Sullivan and John D. Brunner to associates.

• Keller Williams' North Market Center moved to 11859 Pecos St., No. 200.

• Sterling-Rice Group, a branding firm based in Boulder, promoted Lobelia Buckner to account manager, Laura Slavec to senior account manager, Kate Thomson to research manager and Meridith Wenzel to assistant media planner.

• Cactus Marketing Communications, a Denver-based branding agency, appointed Danielle Bryan to advertising production coordinator.

• The Denver office of Holland & Hart added Anthony Shaheen as a partner in the environmental and resources litigation practice group and Jan Harris as a partner in the oil and gas practice group.

• Mark Forsyth was named director of the Fort Collins Technology Incubator.

• Denver-based eTrial Communications Inc. named Gina Grabarek as director of sales and marketing and Monica O'Toole as director, Brief-Lynx.

• Corona Research, a market/demographic research firm based in Denver, promoted Rana Martinez to project assistant.

• Burns Marketing Communications, based in northern Colorado, added Joellen Sarmast as a copywriter, Dawna Susa as a public relations specialist and Dane Wiederspahn to the systems administration and interactive services departments.

• The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration recognized the Rocky Mountain Metal Container plant in Golden for an excellent employee safety and health program. The facility is part of the Coors corporate family and manufactures ends for aluminum cans.

Rocky staff and wire reports

Back to Top