AIRLINES

REGULATORS

SEC Sues Ex-Diebold Employee

The Securities and Exchange Commission sued a former Diebold sales employee, claiming he illegally traded on inside knowledge that the maker of automated-teller and voting machines would miss financial targets in 2005. Robert Cole, 66, made more than $500,000 by betting Diebold's shares would drop after a manager told him revenue and orders were falling short at the company's North American bank business, the SEC said in a civil suit filed in federal court in Oklahoma City. Less than a week after Cole allegedly began buying hundreds of soon-to-expire stock options in September 2005, Diebold, based in North Canton, Ohio, cut its profit forecast.

LEGAL

Health-Care Officials Convicted

Five former executives at National Century Financial Enterprises were convicted of cheating investors out of $2 billion before the health-care financing company's bankruptcy in 2002.

The Dublin, Ohio, company loaned money to struggling health-care providers and claimed to secure the loans with incoming payments that backed bonds sold to investors, prosecutors said. Many receivables were worthless IOUs, forcing National Century to use new money to pay old investors, prosecutors said. National Century sought to be the largest financer in the country for health-care providers. Its collapse led to bankruptcies by 275 providers, regulators said.

HOUSING

Calif. Home Prices, Sales Plunge

Median home prices plunged in 15 of California's most populous counties in February, with Southern California leading the slide with an overall drop of 17.9 percent compared with a year earlier, according to new housing data.

DataQuick Information Systems said the median price in a six-county area of Southern California fell to $408,000, the lowest level since October 2004, when it was $402,500. That median is 19.2 percent below the region's peak of $505,000 last summer and down 1.7 percent from January.

MANUFACTURING

Molson Coors Announces Layoffs

Molson Coors Brewing said it plans to eliminate up to 390 jobs, about 4 percent of its global workforce, and outsource the duties to Hewlett-Packard. The cuts will be divided among divisions in Golden, Colo., Toronto and England.

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Red Hat Buys Amentra

Red Hat, the biggest seller of Linux software, bought Amentra of Richmond, adding consulting services to bolster sales. Amentra, which has more than 140 employees, will operate as an independent unit. No terms were disclosed.

Compiled from reports by Washington Post staff writers, the Associated Press and Bloomberg News.