Mountain View, Calif. – VeriSign, the main manager of the Web-address database, said chairman Ed Mueller will resign to concentrate on his new duties as chief executive of Qwest.
Mueller, 60, will leave in the “near” future, Mountain View, Calif.-based VeriSign said in a regulatory filing Wednesday. He became VeriSign’s chairman in May.
Additional business news briefs:
BOULDER
FTC: Ex-Wild Oats CEO due payments
Wild Oats Markets Inc. may have retaliated against former chief executive Perry Odak, who testified in the government’s bid to stop a takeover by Whole Food Markets Inc., the biggest U.S. natural-foods grocer, lawyers for the Federal Trade Commission said.
Odak, who led Boulder-based Wild Oats from 2001 until he left the company in October, testified in a probe that led to the FTC’s suit to block the acquisition, the agency said in court papers dated Aug. 3.
“After receiving the transcript of Mr. Odak’s testimony, the defendants appear to have withheld certain payments due to Mr. Odak,” the FTC said in the papers, posted Tuesday.
DENVER
DIA narrows list of hotel proposals to 3
Denver International Airport has narrowed the list of proposals it is considering for development of a terminal hotel from five to three, chief deputy manager Cheryl Cohen-Vader said during a City Council committee meeting Wednesday.
The airport originally received five proposals for developing the hotel, along with several others for just doing pieces of the work such as financing or construction, Vader said. “Everybody will be allowed a period to sweeten their proposal,” she said.
COLORADO SPRINGS
Lockheed picks SRC to assist U.S. Army
SRC Computers Inc., a Colorado Springs-based provider of computer services, announced Wednesday that it has been chosen by Lockheed Martin to provide both ground and airborne processing solutions for the U.S. Army’s Tactical Reconnaissance and Counter-Concealment Enabled Radar program.
The $40 million TRACER contract was awarded to Lockheed Martin by the Army in May and incorporates radar systems into Predator class unmanned aerial vehicles.
DOUGLAS COUNTY
Liberty Media buys equity stake in Borba
Liberty Media Corp., controlled by billionaire John Malone, bought an equity stake in Borba, a line of health and beauty products that began sales last year on Liberty’s QVC television shopping channel.
Borba has sold almost $5 million in products on QVC since May 2006, Douglas County-based Liberty Media said Wednesday in a statement. Terms of the purchase weren’t disclosed.
BENTONVILLE, Ark.
Violations at suppliers of Wal-Mart decline
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, said “high risk” health, safety and labor violations at its suppliers’ factories fell 12 percentage points after the company increased inspections and vendor training.
In its third annual report, Wal-Mart said 6,733, or 40 percent, of its 16,700 audits last year revealed violations in the most serious category, down from 52 percent in 2005, according to Wal-Mart spokesman Kevin Gardner.
It audited 8,873 locations worldwide.
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.
DirecTV ranks best in customers’ minds
DirecTV Group Inc., the largest U.S. satellite-television provider, ranked the highest in customer satisfaction among cable and satellite providers in three of four U.S. regions, an annual report said.
DirecTV topped rankings in the East, West and South, J.D. Power & Associates said in its annual satisfaction study.
Cable provider Wow earned the top spot in the north-central region.
NEW YORK
Director sues website over porn credits
A film director sued Inc. for $2.15 million, claiming that its movie-database website falsely credits her as the director of two hard-core pornography movies.
credits Nesya Shapiro Blue as the director of “Dreams of Candace Heart” and “Fantasy in Blue,” both from 1991, Blue claimed in a complaint filed Wednesday in New York state court.
NEW YORK
Tarragon in talks to avert bankruptcy
Tarragon Corp., a U.S. homebuilder, is in talks with lenders to avert bankruptcy after receiving default notices and demands that the company immediately pay back 17 percent of its $1.6 billion in outstanding debt.
WASHINGTON
Hybrid SUV demand surprises Ford
The popularity of the Ford Escape hybrid has taken the automaker by surprise and left its potential customers howling that the gas-electric SUVs are not widely available.
Car buyers say they cannot find the vehicles on dealers’ lots, in dealer inventory systems online or just about anywhere else they look.
The Ford Escape arrived in showrooms in 2004 as the first gas-electric hybrid version of sport utility vehicles, one of just a handful of vehicles in the category.
