Business briefs

Friday, Aug. 8, 2003 | 11:23 a.m.

Retailer ups earnings outlook

RICHFIELD, Minn. -- Best Buy Co. Inc. on Thursday raised its earnings estimate for the second quarter and fiscal 2004, citing strong sales and cost controls, sending the consumer electronics retailer's shares up 14 percent.

Best Buy now expects earnings to range from 37 to 42 cents a share in the three months ending Aug. 30. That is 10 cents higher than its previous estimate and beats the consensus estimate of 30 cents by analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.

For the full fiscal year, Best Buy also raised its earnings forecast by 10 cents to a range of $2.27 to $2.32 per share, compared to analysts' consensus of $2.22 per share. Best Buy earned $1.91 per share from continuing operations in fiscal 2003.

On the New York Stock Exchange, Best Buy shares rose $5.81 to close at $46.49.

Judge asked to unseal transcript

HOUSTON -- A federal judge will consider a request from the Houston Chronicle to make public the transcript of a closed hearing held last month in the criminal case of former Enron Corp. finance chief Andrew Fastow.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt will hear the newspaper's argument on Aug. 26.

Fastow, former Enron treasurer Ben Glisan Jr. and former Enron vice president of finance Dan Boyle are charged in a 109-count indictment alleging they created, ran or participated in schemes to inflate the company's profits and hide debt through accounting tricks.

SEC review complete

NEW YORK -- Tyco International Ltd., the biggest maker of security systems and electronic connectors, said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Corporation Finance has completed its review of the company's filings.

The Bermuda-based conglomerate, which has New York offices, said it was notified yesterday of the review's completion. Tyco and its former executives remain under investigation by the SEC's Division of Enforcement, the company said in a statement.

Tyco in July restated more than $1 billion in quarters dating back to 1998 after the SEC requested the statements be changed. Chief Executive Ed Breen is trying to fix accounting irregularities left from Dennis Kozlowski, who ran Tyco until June 2002, and was later accused of theft and fraud.

SCO countersued in Linux battle

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- International Business Machines Corp. retaliated in court Thursday against claims by the SCO Group Inc. that it gave away proprietary code to developers of the Linux operating system.

IBM sought dismissal of SCO's original suit, alleging that the Utah company made false allegations, competed unfairly and infringed on IBM patents. The countersuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

SCO claims to own the rights to key elements of the Unix operating system, which has been licensed to thousands of companies, including IBM. In a $3 billion suit it filed against IBM in March, SCO alleges that IBM transferred code from its AIX version of Unix to Linux, which is developed by thousands of programmers worldwide.

Settlement reached with former employees

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Taco Bell reached a $1.5 million settlement Thursday with about 1,000 former employees who had sued claiming overtime and meal break violations at restaurants in Oregon.

The employees will be paid an amount of the settlement based on their length of employment at the fast-food chain, said India Simmons, a spokeswoman for PR Ink, a public relations firm representing the plaintiffs.

The company did not acknowledge any wrongdoing with the settlement. Taco Bell is a division of Yum! Brands Inc., which also owns KFC and Pizza Hut.

Airline building hangar in New York

NEW YORK -- JetBlue Airways Corp., a low-fare carrier that plans to double its fleet by the end of 2005, began building a $45 million maintenance hangar and support office at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The project, to be finished by December 2004, includes a hangar big enough for three Airbus A320 planes and a two-story office building for 400 employees, the New York-based airline said in a statement. The airport is the carrier's main base.

The hangar is the second announced in a week by JetBlue, as low-fare carriers expand while larger competitors such as AMR Corp.'s American Airlines cut back. JetBlue operates flights between Las Vegas and New York and Long Beach, Calif.