NATIONAL

Comcast chairman's 2006 pay package: $27.8 million

The chairman and chief executive of Comcast Corp., the nation's largest cable-television operator, received a 2006 compensation package valued by the company at $27.8 million, according to a proxy statement filed with federal regulators Thursday.

Brian Roberts was given a salary of $2.5 million, a bonus of $3 million, incentive awards worth $8.4 million and other perks valued at $2.9 million, which included personal use of the company plane, contributions to retirement plans and payment of tax liabilities and insurance policies.

He also received above-market returns on deferred compensation of $407,624.

Roberts got stock options and restricted stock awards valued by the company at $10.6 million on the day they were granted, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing showed.

FIDELITY CUTS PENSIONS Fidelity Investments is eliminating its traditional pension plan for roughly 32,000 of its employees, an important symbolic move by a company that has been at the forefront of efforts to push more responsibility for retirement onto workers and away from companies.

The Boston mutual fund giant will instead offer workers increased benefits in the company's 401(k) plan, a new health- savings credit that will allow workers to put aside money tax-free today to help pay medical expenses when they are retired, and will allow them to roll their existing pension benefits into a Fidelity profit-sharing plan.

FOUR SEASONS BUYOUT Four Seasons Hotels Inc. said Thursday that two independent voting advisory services are recommending that shareholders vote to approve the $3.7 billion buyout of the company.

The buying group includes Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and Isadore Sharp, the chairman and chief executive of Four Seasons.

EARLIER ORDER American Airlines wants 47 Boeing 737s four years earlier than its original request, a move that industry experts said could signal a wave of orders for new passenger jets.

Orders by the world's largest airline likely herald a surge in orders for new planes from Boeing Co. and Airbus SAS from long-established "legacy" carriers, including several with aging fleets that have emerged from or remain in bankruptcy, analysts told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

MILLS DEAL COMPLETED Simon Property Group Inc. and Farallon Capital Management LLC completed their cash tender offer for mall owner Mills Corp., which owns Colorado Mills in Lakewood.

About 86 percent of outstanding Mills common shares were tendered, and the takeover will be completed in the next several days, Simon and Farallon said in a statement.

Mills, the owner of 38 regional shopping malls, agreed last month to be acquired for $1.64 billion by Simon and Farallon for $25.25 a share. The acquisition will allow Indianapolis-based Simon, which owns Town Center at Aurora, and San Francisco-based hedge fund Farallon to expand their real estate holdings.

FIRM TO SHUT DOWN Prominent law firm Jenkens & Gilchrist will shut its doors and pay a $76 million civil penalty in agreements with federal prosecutors and the IRS over allegedly fraudulent tax shelters that the firm promoted, the government announced Thursday.

The Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service spent four years investigating Jenkens & Gilchrist and its promotion of shelters used to shield billions of dollars from taxes.

The IRS said an estimated 1,400 wealthy individuals were affected by the firm's advice on tax shelters and will owe interest and penalties for underpaid taxes.

Jenkens & Gilchrist, a 56-year-old national law firm based in Dallas, has been sued in recent years by wealthy investors who followed its advice and purchased the shelters.

MORTGAGE RATES UNCHANGED Rates on 30-year mortgages were unchanged this week, staying near the lowest levels for the year.

Mortgage giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.16 percent, the same as last week. Rates on 15-year, fixed-rate mortgages, a popular choice for refinancing, dipped slightly this week to 5.86 percent, down from 5.90 percent.

LOCAL

Discovery to buy Cox's share of company

Douglas County-based Discovery Communications Inc., operator of nature channels on cable television, will buy Cox Communications Holdings Inc.'s 25 percent share of the company, boosting investor John Malone's stake.

Cox will receive $1.28 billion and ownership of the Travel Channel and Antenna Audio, which provides self-guided tours and multimedia presentations at museums.

The purchase gives Malone's publicly traded Discovery Holding Co. a 66 percent stake in the cable programmer, which produces channels including TLC, Animal Planet and Discovery Health. Malone controls Discovery Holding through his ownership of Class B shares.

Malone, also chairman of Liberty Media, has a 31 percent voting stake in the company, according to last year's proxy statement.

CSU WIND FARM Colorado State University said Thursday that it plans to convert its entire Fort Collins campus energy use to 100 percent wind power.

The CSU Green Power Project, a wind farm in northern Colorado, is expected to generate more power than the university consumes. The project - to be completed in eight years - also will serve as an outdoor laboratory in areas ranging from clean energy technology development to a variety of related environmental impact studies.

The Colorado State University Research Foundation, the private, nonprofit advocacy arm of the university, completed a deal with Wind Holding LLC to develop the facility on CSU's 11,000-acre Maxwell Ranch near the Wyoming border.

DENVER MERKLE OFFICE Merkle, a database marketing agency headquartered in Lanham, Md., will open a 20,000-square-foot office this spring in Independence Plaza at 1050 17th St. in Denver.

The company plans to consolidate its 75 Denver workers, now spread between two offices, and will add up to 50 people in the next two years.

ECONOMY

Goldman economist: Downturn more likely

The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. top economist believes the odds of a full-blown U.S. economic downturn have risen, but a recession still is unlikely.

"There are a lot of credible arguments" that suggest the U.S. economy could soon face a recession, said Jan Hatzius, Goldman's chief economist. He spoke Thursday as part of a panel discussion at the University of Dayton.

The forecaster noted that the size of the housing market and the trouble it now faces is comparable to the stock market bubble of the late 1990s and early part of this decade. Meanwhile, "the economy is already pretty weak" and periods of protracted subpar growth are a particularly vulnerable period for any expansion, he said.

Also, "inflation is still too high from the Fed's perspective," which limits its willingness to cut interest rates to help boost growth, Hatzius said.

• The economy grew at a 2.5 percent pace in the final quarter of last year, healthier than previously thought but still largely caught up in a spell of sluggishness.

The new reading on gross domestic product, released by the Commerce Department on Thursday, was an improvement from the prior estimate of a 2.2 percent growth rate for the October-to-December period. However, it marked the third quarter in a row in which the economy's growth clocked in at a lethargic 2 percent or better, reflecting the drag of the crumbling housing market on overall business growth.

• The Labor Department reported new claims filed for unemployment insurance dropped by a seasonally adjusted 10,000, to 308,000, last week.

THIS JUST IN...

• Business and sustainability expert L. Hunter Lovins will present "Drivers of Change: How to Prosper in an Uncertain World" from 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Denver Central Public Library's B2 Conference Center as a part of its Green series of events, hosted by the library's Fresh City Life Series and Greenprint Denver. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 303-554-0723.

• Boulder-based Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy Inc. has hired Steve Preston as senior director of marketing.

• The Southern Colorado Economic Development District has appointed Allison Cortner executive director of the economic development organization.

• Merkle, a database marketing agency headquartered near Washington, D.C., has opened an office in Denver at Independence Plaza, 1050 17th St.

• Melinda Harper, managing member at Denver-based Harper Lutz Zuber Potenza & Associates, has been selected for the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution's Certified Public Accountants Panel of Neutrals.

• Opera Colorado has formed the Business and Professional Women of Opera Colorado, a networking group dedicated to supporting opera and women in the arts. For information on joining the organization, go to operacolorado.org.

• Barry Scoles, vice president of Colorado-based 1st Reverse Mortgage USA, a division of Mountain Pacific Mortgage, has been appointed to the board of National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association.

• InterBay Funding LLC, a financial organization specializing in small commercial lending headquartered in Fort Washington, Pa., will open an office in Denver next month.

• Vanguard Communications has added Keyonna Harvey as a public relations account coordinator; Jordan Peel as a public relations account executive; and Mackie Sweatman as a marketing account executive.

• Big Brothers Big Sisters of Colorado will hold its "Big Business for Youth: A Celebration of Support" event from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. April 5 at the Chambers Grant Salon in the Opera House. Gov. Bill Ritter will present the evening's awards.

Rocky staff and wire reports

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