NTN Communications, a distributor of interactive trivia games and restaurant services, has eliminated a half dozen top management positions in a move to lower its operating costs and consolidate operations through fewer senior managers.
Managers leaving include Mark deGorter, president of the NTN Hospitality Technologies Division, the company's largest unit which provides paging, software and trivia game services to restaurants and sports bars. The Carlsbad company's director of information technology is also leaving. The moves are expected to save the company about $600,000. The company's shares closed down 6 cents at $1.44.
Adventrx licensing therapy rights
Adventrx Pharmaceuticals said it would license rights to a novel emulsion formulation of vinorelbine tartate, a therapy used in combination with other drugs for treatment of non-small-cell lung, breast and ovarian cancers, from privately held SD Pharmaceuticals.
Adventrx said it has initiated discussions with the FDA for clinical trial design for the drug. The company is preparing for its pre-investigational new drug meeting with the FDA scheduled for December.
Ford to offer rebates, loans
Ford Motor Co. said that it has replaced its employee pricing discount program with traditional cash rebates and cheap loans in a widely expected move after the discounts lost their allure with consumers.
Ford, which saw U.S. sales decline 20 percent in September, has been offering consumers the same low prices that its employees pay for vehicles since July, following a similar move from larger rival General Motors Corp. The big discount program, called the Ford Family Plan, helped the automaker post two months of higher sales, but lost appeal with U.S. consumers in September.
Reuters
Delta paring its flight schedule
Delta Air Lines Inc., buffeted by high fuel costs in the wake of Katrina and Rita, said it is reducing its domestic flight schedule. The Atlanta-based carrier isn't experiencing a shortage of jet fuel, but is conserving energy, it said. A Delta spokeswoman said it's impossible to say exactly how many flights will be reduced because it will depend on travel each day.
The reductions will be minimal, though, affecting early morning and late-night flights that have low bookings. For example, flights are more likely to be cut on Tuesday or Wednesdays rather than on busier travel days such as Friday, Sunday and Monday.
Delta will notify affected passengers a few days in advance and will try to offer them choices about rescheduling flights. The company has no end date for the flight reductions.
Associated Press
Navy awards North Island pact
The Naval Facilities Engineering Command in San Diego has awarded a $5.6 million contract to I.E. Pacific and RDH Joint Venture of San Diego to renovate interior spaces in Buildings 10 and 11 at the North Island Naval Air Station. The project is is expected to be completed by April 2008.
Brookfield makes tender offer
Brookfield Homes of Del Mar said it expects to 2005 earnings of $6.50 to $7.00 per share and announced a tender offer for up to 3 million of its shares. Shareholders may tender their shares at a price of $55 per share.
The stock fell $2 to close at at $53.89.
Brascan Corp., which owns 50 percent of Brookfield, plans to tender up to an equal number of shares as the total number of shares tendered by other holders, Brookfield said. The tender offer is expected to start by Oct. 14.
Brookfield also said it expects to end this year with a backlog of 30 percent of its planned 2006 home closings. New orders for the three months ended Sept. 30 fell 55 units to 246 units, a decline that Brookfield attributed to fewer homes available for sale in California.
Coronado First Bank now open
Coronado First Bank officially opened for business yesterday after nine months of raising capital from investors. The bank is at 801 Orange Ave. Bruce Ives, who ran Cuyamaca Bank before it was sold to Community Bancorp. of Escondido last year, is president and chief executive of Coronado First Bank.
