Westin snuffs out smoking at 77 hotels in N. America
White Plains, N.Y. – A major hotel chain is going smoke-free next month and will add $200 to the bill of anyone who violates the policy, an executive said Monday.
Westin Hotels & Resorts is banning smoking indoors and poolside at all 77 of its properties in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, said senior vice president Sue Brush. Smokers will have to go to a designated outdoor area, she said.
In the Denver area, the chain operates two Westin hotels and four Sheraton properties.
Enica Thompson, spokeswoman for the American Hotel & Lodging Association, said Westin is the first major American chain to go smoke-free and predicted that “many of the other hotel chains will probably want to see how it works out for Westin” before following suit.
Eight Westin hotels were already smoke-free, and at least 5 percent of the rooms at the others had been set aside for nonsmokers, Brush said. But market research found that 92 percent of Westin’s guests were requesting nonsmoking rooms, and some of those who couldn’t get them were “quite upset,” she said.
VAIL
Record early snowfall has resort set to open
Vail Mountain’s early-season snowfall is at a record high, Vail Resorts Inc. announced Monday.
A total of 141.25 inches has fallen so far, surpassing the previous record of 140 inches, set during the 1985-86 season.
Thanks to the heavy snow, Vail’s Blue Sky Basin will open Friday, the second-earliest opening in the resort’s history.
Also Monday, Breckenridge opened its new Imperial Express SuperChair, North America’s highest chairlift, which reaches 12,840 feet.
BOULDER
AMK Welding enters supply agreement
Dynamic Materials Corp., a Boulder-based provider of explosion-clad metal plates, announced Monday that its AMK Welding division has entered into a five-year supply agreement with a major customer.
Under the agreement, AMK will perform a range of welding, heat treatment and nondestructive testing services on ground-based power turbine components.
NEW YORK
Verizon retirement plans to be trimmed
Verizon Communications Inc., the second largest U.S. telephone company, will cut its retirement plans for managers to save $3 billion over 10 years. The company’s 50,000 managers will stop earning pension credits after June 30 next year and those hired after Jan. 1 won’t earn benefits.
New York-based Verizon also said it may sell or spin off its phone book and online directories business to raise cash. The business could be valued at more than $17 billion.
CINCINNATI
Scripps execs lower 4th-quarter outlook
Newspaper and cable network company E.W. Scripps Co. on Monday lowered its fourth-quarter outlook, saying earnings will be hurt by losses at its Shop At Home unit and by the effect of Hurricane Wilma on its Florida operations.
Scripps owns the Rocky Mountain News and the Daily Camera in Boulder.
Scripps executives, in New York for investor conferences, said they expect fourth-quarter earnings to be 48 to 50 cents per share, down from an earlier forecast of 52 to 56 cents per share.
PARIS
China plant eyed for $9 billion Airbus order
Airbus and China announced an order worth $9 billion on Monday for 150 single-aisle A320 jets and said it would consider building an assembly line for the aircraft in China.
The long-expected Airbus order surpasses recent orders in China for Boeing aircraft.
Both manufacturers regard China and India as the top markets for aircraft sales in the next decade, and China is already hotly contested.
NEW YORK
Time Warner may not sell AOL after all
Time Warner may not be selling a piece of America Online after all. It is still in negotiations with Microsoft and Google over a variety of potential deals involving its AOL unit.
But most of the possibilities under discussion do not involve either company’s buying a stake in AOL, an executive briefed on the negotiations said Monday.
Rather, they would involve cooperation on Web search, advertising sales and possibly other areas, the executive said.
DETROIT
Asian automakers see U.S. market share rise
Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Hyundai Motor Co., benefiting from demand for their newest cars, boosted November sales more than 10 percent and helped Asian brands match their second-highest U.S. market share.
Gains at Toyota and Honda, the fourth- and fifth-largest automakers in the U.S. by sales, gave Japanese and South Korean brands a 39 percent share of new vehicle sales last month, up from 35.8 percent a year ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
NEW YORK
Mergers, acquisitions could set record in ’06
Mergers and acquisitions, the most lucrative moneymaker on Wall Street after trading, may provide a record $18 billion in fees to the financial industry next year as corporations use their burgeoning stockpiles of cash for the biggest spending spree since the Internet bubble burst, an analyst says.
“2006 may well be the best year ever for mergers and acquisitions,” said Paul Taubman, 44, global head of mergers and acquisitions at New York-based Morgan Stanley, the world’s No. 2 merger adviser after Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
SAN FRANCISCO
Exchange to delist debt-plagued Calpine
The New York Stock Exchange said Monday that it plans to delist Calpine Corp. in a move reflecting Wall Street’s dismay as the debt-plagued power merchant considers bankruptcy.
The decision represents the investment community’s latest snub of a company whose shares have been eroding as its debts and losses mount.
WASHINGTON
Interest rates rise on short-term T-bills
Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills rose in Monday’s auction, with six-month bills climbing to the highest level in three weeks.
The Treasury Department auctioned $18 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 3.930 percent and an additional $16 billion in six-month bills at a rate of 4.185 percent.
The three-month rate was the highest since three-month bills averaged 3.940 percent Nov. 21. The six-month rate was the highest since 4.195 percent Nov. 14.
