Washington – An independent team of scientists, engineers and managers has approved several new technologies developed for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled for 2013 launch.
Northrop Grumman Corp. in Redondo Beach, Calif., is building the space telescope, and Boulder’s Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. is the primary subcontractor.
An evaluation team approved the new technologies planned for use in the Webb – from mirrors to circuits and sunshields – a full year early, NASA reported Wednesday.
Additional business news briefs:
DENVER
Retail sales in Colo. increased in February
Retail sales across the state increased 5.5 percent in February compared with a year earlier, according to data released Wednesday by the Colorado Department of Revenue.
Nationally, February retail sales were up 2.7 percent, the National Retail Federation said.
DENVER
$500 million sold in Qwest senior notes
Qwest, the fourth-largest U.S. phone company, sold $500 million of 10-year senior notes through one of its units to repay debt.
The 6.5 percent securities were priced to yield 186 basis points more than treasuries of similar maturity, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Qwest’s bankers had initially marketed $400 million of bonds at yields of 6.5 percent to 6.625 percent, KDP Investment Advisors Inc. said Wednesday.
FORT CARSON
Torix wins contracts for base construction
Torix General Contractors in Colorado Springs won a $19.9 million contract for construction of a special operations forces battalion support complex, company operations facility and other facilities at Fort Carson.
The contract is expected to be completed by Jan. 1, 2009.
BOULDER
Array plans sale of 7 million stock shares
Array BioPharma Inc. announced Tuesday that it plans to sell 7 million shares of common stock at $13 per share. Array has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1 million shares to cover over-allotments.
Array expects to receive net proceeds of approximately $85.2 million from the sale to fund Array’s proprietary drug programs and other purposes.
DENVER
Law firm dissolves; 16 lawyers join others
The Denver law firm of Cage Williams has dissolved and 16 lawyers have joined two other firms.
Former Cage Williams name partner James Cage and David A. Laird, both litigators, have joined Moye White. Fourteen Cage Williams attorneys, including former name partner and president Mark Williams, have joined Sherman & Howard, the firm said Wednesday. The move brings a sixth office, located in Steamboat Springs, to Sherman & Howard’s existing operations in Colorado, Nevada and Arizona.
DENVER
High-deductible dental plan on way
Two insurers announced Wednesday the introduction of a high-deductible dental plan.
Ben-e-lect, in partnership with Grouplink Inc., will offer employers in Colorado the state’s first high-deductible dental plan, according to the companies. Such plans offer lower premiums compared with traditional health plans.
DOUGLAS COUNTY
Telecom extends right to Time Warner name
Time Warner Telecom announced Wednesday it has secured the right to continue using the Time Warner name through June 2008.
The telecommunications company had previously said it would rebrand itself by this summer. The Douglas County-based company also said it would spend $3 million to $4 million during the next three quarters on its rebranding initiative.
HONOLULU
Telcom wants to sell publishing business
Hawaiian Telcom will seek state approval to sell its directory-publishing business for $435 million to Arapahoe County-based Local Insight Media LP.
The company said some of the proceeds would be used to pay down debt and pay for network infrastructure improvements.
LOS ANGELES
Cussler inflated book sales, attorney says
A disputed contract between a movie-production company and Clive Cussler wouldn’t have existed if the author and his literary agent hadn’t grossly inflated the number of books Cussler sold, an attorney said Wednesday during closing arguments of a trial involving the film “Sahara.”
Attorney Marvin Putnam told jurors his client, Crusader Entertainment, was defrauded by Cussler and his agent, Peter Lampack, before the parties agreed to make “Sahara,” which was based on the author’s action-adventure book of the same name.
Putnam said Crusader’s owner, Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz, paid an unprecedented amount – $10 million – to adapt a book into a film because he believed Cussler had sold 100 million books.
CUPERTINO, Calif.
Apple’s Jobs defends maker of iPod device
Apple Inc. chief executive Steve Jobs fired back at environmentalists Wednesday, saying the maker of the ubiquitous iPod is an industry leader in removing toxic chemicals from its products and promoting recycling.
Apple plans to completely eliminate the use of arsenic in all of its displays by the end of 2008, and the company will eventually stop using mercury, Jobs wrote in a five-page memo.
