Chevrolet seeks to broaden audience with new Camaro
Traverse City, Mich. – When it brings back the Chevrolet Camaro muscle car in a few years, General Motors said, it hopes it will attract younger buyers as well as appeal to its traditional customers who want to roar down the highway.
GM’s top executive said Thursday the new version of the Detroit icon will appeal to car enthusiasts yet be more fuel-efficient and sophisticated than the 1969 version on which it is loosely based.
The new rear-wheel-drive car, with more aerodynamic styling than its predecessor, will hit showroom floors early in 2009. It will be available with automatic and manual transmissions and six- and eight-cylinder engine options to appeal to many buyers, said chairman and chief executive Rick Wagoner.
The decision to build a car that harks back to GM’s heyday comes as the company struggles in a market beset by foreign competitors.
The company lost $3.2 billion in the second quarter, mainly because of employee buyouts and other restructuring costs. Its July sales were off 22.2 percent from a year ago, the drop-off led by declining demand for pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles.
CENTENNIAL
Groople gets funding to expand operations
Groople Inc., a Centennial- based online group-travel booking company, announced Thursday it has secured $6 million in additional venture-capital funding.
The financing was provided by ArrowPath Venture Partners, FA Technology Ventures, Vista Ventures, Fatty Tuna and Flywheel Ventures.
The company said it plans to use the financing to expand its website and hire more workers.
CHARLOTTE, N.C.
N.C. firm settles dispute with Qwest
U.S. LEC Corp., a telecommunications company based in Charlotte, announced Thursday it has settled a legal dispute with Denver-based Qwest.
In January 2005, the company filed suit against Qwest in the U.S. District Court in North Carolina for collection of unpaid interstate and intrastate access charges.
Qwest filed a counterclaim alleging breach of contract, fraud and other charges.
KANSAS CITY, Mo.
Colo. mass layoffs down from year ago
Colorado workers faced fewer large-scale layoffs in the second quarter of this year than the second quarter of last year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics said Thursday.
Large employers in the state dismissed or laid off 12,566 workers for a month or more during the second quarter in nine mass layoffs, compared with 14,811 people in a dozen layoffs during the same quarter a year ago.
The number of people claiming unemployment insurance fell to 1,179 from 1,500 in the comparable quarter.
The extended-mass-layoff report looks at employers that dismiss 50 or more workers for 31 days or more. Colorado ranked among the top 10 states for layoffs in the quarter, largely because of seasonal factors, including the end of ski season.
GREENWOOD VILLAGE
Red Robin earnings less than ’05 quarter
Greenwood Village-based Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc. on Thursday reported second-quarter earnings of 43 cents per share, compared with 45 cents a year ago.
The second-quarter numbers included 5 cents per share in stock-compensation expenses.
Second-quarter revenues increased 19.1 percent to $135.9 million.
HOUSTON
Anadarko hopes for $10 billion asset sales
Anadarko Petroleum Corp., which closed on its purchase of natural-gas producer Kerr-McGee Corp. on Thursday, said asset sales, including its Canadian holdings, could produce as much as $10 billion in proceeds.
Anadarko is reviewing assets that can be sold to help pay down debt associated with the Kerr-McGee purchase and the pending acquisition of Denver- based Western Gas Resources Inc., expected to close Aug. 23, the Houston-based company said in a statement.
SAN FRANCISCO
Hearst agrees to deal with MediaNews
Hearst Corp. has agreed to pay $299 million to Denver-based ap in the next phase of a complex deal aimed at creating a partnership between the two newspaper publishers outside the San Francisco Bay Area.
If the $299 million investment is completed, MediaNews has agreed to return a chunk of the money to buy the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Monterey County Herald from Hearst, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Hearst bought the Minnesota and California papers from McClatchy Co. this month with the intention of turning them over to MediaNews. Media News owns The Denver Post and dozens of other newspapers nationwide.
LOS ANGELES
Anschutz named Calif. power player
The Los Angeles Times’ West Magazine has named Denver financier Philip Anschutz the eighth-most powerful player in California.
“Southern California has more than its share of absentee landlords. Few, however, have had as much impact as Anschutz,” owner of the Staples Center, the Home Depot Center, nearly 30 percent of the Los Angeles Lakers and other L.A. sports franchises, the magazine said.
“His entertainment company, AEG, plans to spend more than $1 billion in hotel and commercial development that will inject even more life into downtown Los Angeles,” it said.
DENVER
Bond sale refunds DIA debt from 1996
An underwriting syndicate led by Goldman Sachs and Piper Jaffray has sold $280 million in bonds that refund Denver International Airport debt originally issued in 1996, the city of Denver said Thursday.
The bonds create a savings of greater than $25 million.
DENVER
Service restored to Cingular customers
Cingular Wireless customers in southwest Denver and Grand Junction went without service for about three hours Thursday afternoon.
“We had two very specific areas where there was a software glitch,” said Lauren Garner, a Cingular spokeswoman. “Service has been restored.”
