BROOMFIELD – Shares of Broomfield-based Level 3 Communications slipped nearly 3 percent Monday after Goldman Sachs reinstated coverage on the Internet-connections provider with a “neutral” rating – but set a below-market price target of $5 a share.
Level 3 stock closed Monday at $6.14, down 18 cents.
MORE BRIEFS
GOLDEN
Isonics board affirms reverse stock split
Isonics Corp., a Golden-based provider of products to the homeland-security and semiconductor markets, announced Monday that its board of directors reaffirmed a decision to complete a 1-for-4 reverse stock split to maintain its listing on the Nasdaq stock market.
The board also decided to sell its life-sciences division to focus on more rapidly growing and higher-potential opportunities in the semiconductor and homeland-security product areas.
SAN JOSE, Calif.
Colo. private eye sees Calif. charges dropped
State felony charges that a former Hewlett-Packard Co. private investigator lied to get telephone records were dropped because he pleaded guilty to similar federal counts.
Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Jerome Nadler on Monday dismissed identity-theft and conspiracy charges brought by the state of California against Bryan Wagner, 29, of Littleton. The accusations stemmed from Wagner’s role in Palo Alto-based HP’s investigation of news leaks from its boardroom.
CHICAGO
McDonald’s selects more healthful oil
McDonald’s Corp. has finally selected a new trans-fat-free oil for cooking its famous french fries after years of testing, the fast-food chain said Monday.
While it has developed a healthier new oil, the company is still not saying when it will be used in all 13,700 U.S. restaurants. Spokesman Walt Riker said the oil is currently used in more than 1,200 U.S. restaurants but declined to provide details on when that began or locations.
BOSTON
TJX delayed news of security breach
TJX Cos., parent of discount retailers T.J. Maxx and Marshall’s, took a month to make public a computer-security breach because it was trying to prevent further damage, the company’s chairman said in an online message and full-page ad in Boston newspapers.
TJX Cos. discovered in mid- December that customer data had been stolen by computer hackers and used to make fraudulent debit-card and credit-card purchases, but it did not inform the public of the breach until mid-January.
BRIDGEPORT, Conn.
Ex-Cendant workers receive probation
Two former accountants were spared prison time Monday for their roles in a massive accounting scandal at Cendant Corp. that cost the company and its investors more than $3 billion.
Anne Pember, 47, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy in 2000, was sentenced to two years of probation and 200 hours of community service. Casper Sabatino, 54, a former accountant at CUC International, also got two years of probation. He pleaded guilty to wire-fraud charges and cooperated with federal prosecutors.
Cendant, a travel and real-estate services company, was formed in 1997 through the merger of CUC and HFS Inc.
WASHINGTON
FAA may raise pilot-retirement age
U.S. airline pilots could fly up until age 65 as long as the other person in the cockpit is under age 60, according to a rule aviation regulators may propose, a person familiar with the matter said.
Marion Blakey, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, may announce today that the agency will lift its 47-year practice of forcing airline pilots to retire at 60.
A federal panel in November couldn’t agree whether the pilot- retirement age should be raised, calling the issue “contentious.”
Blakey will ask the panel to reconvene to collect more data on the issue, the source said.
LONDON
British Airways deal averts strike
British Airways expects to operate a full schedule of flights this week after reaching a deal Monday with flight attendants in a labor dispute.
The agreement averts a strike that had been planned for today and Wednesday. It also prompted the carrier to reinstate flights that had been scrapped in anticipation of the strike.
The airline had canceled 1,300 flights this week, including about 180 between North American cities and London’s main airports.
WASHINGTON
Government auctions $31 billion in T-bills
The Treasury Department auctioned $17 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 5.010 percent and an additional $14 billion in six-month bills at a rate of 4.980 percent.
