Billionaire Barry Diller announced plans to split his IAC/InterActiveCorp into two separate companies -- an online travel agency and an electronic retailer. The New York-based interactive commerce company now has about 40 separate businesses under its umbrella, including Match.com and Ticketmaster. Diller said he will spin off Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Hotwire and other travel-related units and keep Home Shopping Network, Ticketmaster and other retail assets under IAC/Interactive. The company's board of directors has already approved the plan, in which Diller will remain as chairman and chief executive of IAC/Interactive.
Hospital Chain Settles Surgery Claims
Tenet Healthcare agreed to set up a $395 million fund by Dec. 31 to settle claims that doctors at a California hospital performed unnecessary operations. The hospital chain said that it would distribute money among more than 750 plaintiffs. In 2003, it paid $54 million to settle government allegations that two doctors did unnecessary heart surgery at Redding Medical Center, which has since been sold.
Nintendo raised its forecast for shipments of new consoles because of high demand in the United States and Japan. The company said it will now ship more than 2.8 million of its popular dual-screen handheld players. Many retail stores have run out of the game console, which costs $149 in the United States, and 90 percent of the shipped Nintendo DS systems have already been sold, the company said.
(Elaine Thompson -- AP)
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PNC Financial Services Group, Pennsylvania's biggest bank, said its insurers will pay $30 million to settle shareholder suits seeking restitution for the stock decline spurred by a 2001 earnings restatement. The payments from insurers, including American International Group, are in addition to the $90 million PNC paid last year to settle allegations by the Department of Justice, the company said in a regulatory filing. Prosecutors said the Pittsburgh bank improperly removed bad loans from its books, inflating earnings.
UBS said it received notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission warning of possible civil charges over work the bank did for HealthSouth, whose founder, Richard M. Scrushy, faces trial on allegations that he masterminded a $2.7 billion accounting fraud. UBS, Europe's largest bank, said it is "cooperating fully" with the SEC and other agencies.
KPMG's U.S. unit can collect $164 million for its work during bankruptcy proceedings for the former WorldCom, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur J. Gonzalez ruled in New York. The company, which emerged as MCI, had recommended paying the accounting firm $622 million. KPMG had sought $657 million. More than 1,100 KPMG employees worked on the case, logging 515,174 hours, court papers show.
U.S. banks increased their derivatives holdings to $84 trillion in the third quarter, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said. The value of derivatives held by banks rose $3.2 trillion, or 3.9 percent, from the second quarter. Derivatives are financial obligations with their value based on another security or benchmark. The most common are interest-rate contracts in which banks act as middlemen, allowing those who buy and sell debt to protect against rising or falling rates.
Cablevision Systems said it is suspending plans for a spinoff of its money-losing high-definition satellite broadcasting business, marketed under the brand name Voom, and will put the unit, launched over a year ago, on the market instead. The company said in a regulatory filing that it would "pursue strategic alternatives" for the satellite business.
Oracle chief executive Lawrence J. Ellison said that by Jan. 14 he will have a complete plan for weaving together the software maker's operations with PeopleSoft, which it agreed earlier this month to acquire for about $10.3 billion.
XTO Energy, a natural-gas and oil producer, will replace PeopleSoft in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index after the markets close next Tuesday. Oracle is taking over PeopleSoft.
An H&R Block subsidiary agreed to pay $500,000 in fines to settle charges that two former brokers helped a hedge fund engage in improper trading practices. NASD, the brokerage industry's self-policing organization, also required Block's investment division to pay $325,000 in restitution to mutual funds affected by the improper trades. Block said the subsidiary, H&R Block Financial Advisors, did not admit wrongdoing.
PanAmSat Holding, a satellite operator, filed to sell as much as $1.12 billion in shares though an initial public offering. The company, which was sold to Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts eight months ago, did not say how many shares it intends to sell or at what price. District-based Carlyle Group and Providence Equity Partners of Rhode Island agreed in June to pay $953 million each for 27 percent stakes in PanAmSat.
UAL, the parent of United Airlines, posted a November net loss of $87 million, even with a profit of $158 million from the sale of its stake in Internet travel company Orbitz. The loss also included $20 million in costs related to its bankruptcy reorganization, the company said in a statement. It had a $75 million net loss for November 2003.
A federal judge approved Southwest Airlines' $117 million deal with ATA Airlines for six gate leases and an aircraft maintenance center at Chicago's Midway Airport.
INTERNATIONAL
Microsoft will find out today if it must immediately abide by an order from European Union antitrust regulators. An E.U. court is set to rule on the regulators' order that the company change its business practices. A decision against Microsoft could force it to divulge some trade secrets and release a version of Windows without its media player.
