Daily Briefing

DEALS

Cadence Design withdraws offer

San Jose, Calif. —- Electronic design software maker Cadence Design Systems Inc. has withdrawn its offer to buy smaller rival Mentor Graphics Corp. Cadence, based in San Jose, in June offered to buy Mentor for $16 per share.

Republic rebuffs suitor a 2nd time

Efforts by Waste Management Inc. to buy rival trash hauler Republic Services Inc. are getting more complicated. The industry’s No. 1 player was rebuffed a second time by Republic, which rejected a sweetened buyout offer that it said still undervalues the company. Waste Management said it is disappointed and will evaluate what it will next do. “We continue to believe that our revised proposal would provide superior value to Republic stockholders and, with Republic’s cooperation, would be executable on a timely basis,” it said. Republic said it believes its earlier proposed merger with Allied Waste Industries Inc. offers more value and certainty for shareholders and that it is moving forward with that deal.

Vishay bids for chip maker

Malvern, Pa. —- Chip maker Vishay Intertechnology Inc. has offered to buy power management chip maker International Rectifier Corp. for $1.6 billion in cash. Malvern-based Vishay says the offer is $21.22 per share, which is about a 13 percent premium over International Rectifier’s Thursday closing price. International Rectifier is based El Segundo, Calif.

AOL to acquire Socialthing site

Time Warner Inc.’s AOL unit has agreed to buy Socialthing, whose technology lets people gather social networking updates in one place. Socialthing, based in Boulder, Colo., aggregates friends’ photos, text messages and music preferences from different social networks. The company has four full-time employees and partnerships with companies including Facebook and Digg, said Allie Burns, a spokeswoman for New York-based AOL.

ECONOMY

Atlanta Fed chief likes present rates

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart said Friday that he prefers to keep interest rates unchanged for now. “From my perspective, I like policy where it is,” Lockhart said in an interview with Bloomberg News. “I view the current situation as reasonably balanced, with a great deal of uncertainty around both the downsides to growth and the upsides to inflation.” The economy’s expansion is likely to remain “weak” through the second half of this year, which should help to dampen inflation, said the Atlanta Fed chief, who will vote on rates next year. That means “the reasonable policy debate will be around holding vs. raising rates,” he said.

Industrial output beats expectations

Washington —- Industrial output rose in July at a slightly better pace than expected as a further rebound in the auto industry offset a big plunge in output at the nation’s utilities. The Federal Reserve reported Friday that industrial production edged up 0.2 percent last month.

FOOD / BEVERAGE

Hershey to raise price of products

Hershey Co., the largest U.S. chocolate maker, will raise prices to counter higher commodity costs. The changes will result in a roughly 10 percent increase across Hershey’s entire domestic product line, the company said Friday in a statement.

ConAgra cuts pay of chief executive

The chief executive of ConAgra Foods Inc. took a 41 percent pay cut in 2008, receiving compensation the packaged food company valued at $7.9 million for a year in which the stock price sank roughly 8 percent. CEO Gary Rodkin received a $1 million salary, $1.8 million in incentive compensation and $4.9 million in stock and options. His $297,526 in perks and extra benefits included $98,215 for personal flights on company aircraft, according to the company’s proxy, filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Before joining ConAgra in 2005, Rodkin, was chairman and CEO of PepsiCo Beverages and Foods North America.

Mrs. Fields to file for Chapter 11

Mrs. Fields Famous Brands LLC, a cookie and frozen yogurt company based in Salt Lake City, said Friday that it plans to file for bankruptcy and began seeking support from creditors for a so-called prepackaged Chapter 11 plan. The company filed the turnaround plan with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Unsecured creditors would be paid in full under the proposal, while equity holders would get nothing. “We are highly leveraged relative to our cash flow, our liquidity position has been steadily deteriorating and is currently severely restricted, and we will not be in a position to make the interest payment due” Sept. 15, Mrs. Fields said in its SEC filing. In a prepackaged bankruptcy, creditors vote on terms of the reorganization before the actual bankruptcy filing, allowing the company to emerge from Chapter 11 more quickly. Mrs. Fields has 1,268 franchised and licensed locations under the names Mrs. Fields Cookies and TCBY in the United States and 21 other countries.

MEDIA

Netflix shipments back to normal

Online DVD rental leader Netflix Inc. resumed normal shipments Friday after its distribution centers were crippled by three days of severe technical problems, a spokesman said. The Los Gatos, Calif.-based company also offered a 15 percent credit to customers whose discs were delayed by the outage, the longest disruption in service since Netflix launched its subscription service nine years ago. The outage held up shipments for about a third of the company’s 8.4 million subscribers, meaning the total value of the credits could run into the millions of dollars. The credits will automatically appear on customers’ next billing statement, according to Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey. The company has declined to say what caused the outage, which affected all 55 of Netflix’s shipping centers.

Web site bedevils magazine industry

The magazine industry, already facing a decline in newsstand sales and falling ad revenue, is being besieged by a new foe: digital piracy. A fledgling Web site called Mygazines.com encourages people to copy and upload popular magazines. Visitors can read high-quality digital copies of dozens of current titles, including People, Men’s Health and The Economist, in their entirety. The site, which has some 16,000 registered users, is a “flagrant” violation of copyright laws, according to legal experts —- but it is run by an offshore company of specious origin, making it difficult to shut down.” Magazines routinely make some or all of their articles available online for free, but they are in control of how much they release, as well as any advertising they sell. The Mygazines site said in a July 29 press release announcing its launch that its copies are no different from magazines shared in a doctor’s office or salon.

REAL ESTATE

Levitt & Sons plan on hold

Levitt & Sons LLC, the bankrupt builder of suburban homes, must wait until Sept. 15 to learn if it can seek creditors’ votes on its plan to pay secured claims with $2.1 million cash on hand and proceeds from liquidation. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Raymond Ray in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., continued Wednesday’s hearing to Sept. 15 to allow the builder time to amend its disclosure statement describing the proposed plan.

REGULATORY

FDA: Bisphenol A isn’t dangerous

Washington —- Despite ongoing safety concerns from parents, consumer groups and politicians, a chemical used in baby bottles, canned food and other items is not dangerous, federal regulators said Friday. Food and Drug Administration scientists said the trace amounts of bisphenol A that leach out of food containers are not a threat to infants or adults. The FDA previously declared the chemical safe, but agreed to revisit that opinion after a report by the federal National Toxicology Program said there was “some concern” about its risks to infants. The plastic-hardening chemical is used to seal canned food and make shatterproof bottles. It also used in hundreds of household items.

RETAILING

PreVu to liquidate leather stores

PreVu Inc., the retailer formerly known as Wilsons the Leather Experts, said it was unable to get financing needed to stay in business and will liquidate its remaining mall and airport stores. The company, whose shares sold for as much as $14 in December 2000, said it doesn’t expect shareholders to recover anything from the liquidation of its chain of luggage, clothing and accessories shops. PreVu operated 228 Wilsons stores in 39 states as of May, about 100 in shopping malls and 14 in airports. It sold 116 outlet stores last month.

TECHNOLOGY

Microsoft format to be the standard

Geneva —- The format used by Microsoft Corp.’s Office 2007 programs to save documents will become an international standard after appeals against the move failed to gather sufficient support, the International Organization for Standardization said Friday. The decision ends months of wrangling over whether Microsoft’s Office Open XML format should be considered an open standard —- a requirement for many lucrative government contracts. Brazil, India, South Africa and Venezuela had complained that an international ballot held in April was poorly conducted and rushed them into a decision based on incomplete information. Technical panels at the Geneva-based ISO and its sister organization, the International Electrotechnical Commission, considered the appeals but concluded that they lacked the necessary support of two-thirds of their membership.

TELECOM

Qwest faces labor deadline

The labor contract with the largest union at Qwest Communications International Inc. expires today, little more than a week before the company is to provide phone and Internet service for the Democratic National Convention in Denver. The Communications Workers of America has voted to authorize a strike, which could theoretically begin Sunday. The union represents 20,000 Qwest workers.

TRANSPORTATION

United’s parent names new CFO

United Airlines’ parent, UAL Corp., has named Kathryn Mikells its chief financial officer, replacing Jake Brace, who will retire Nov. 1. Brace, 50, has served as UAL’s finance chief since 2001 and helped lead Chicago-based United through bankruptcy. Mikells, 42, is now vice president of investor relations.

WORKPLACE

Union imposed on Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will have to accept a contract for unionized workers at one of its North American locations for the first time after a Quebec arbitrator imposed the agreement covering employees at its auto body shop. The three-year contract was ordered by the Quebec Labour Relations Board after the workers and the world’s biggest retailer failed to reach an agreement during negotiations, the United Food and Commercial Workers union said Friday in an e-mail. The contract at the Wal-Mart Tire and Lube Express in Gatineau, Quebec, is the first collective agreement at any Wal-Mart in North America, the union said.

Labor groups go after Wal-Mart

Washington —- The AFL-CIO and three other labor rights groups have asked the Federal Election Commission to investigate whether Wal-Mart Stores Inc. unlawfully pressured employees to vote against Democrats in November. The groups —- which include Change to Win, American Rights at Work and WakeUpWalMart.com —- say in a complaint processed on Friday that “there is reason to believe” Wal-Mart broke federal election rules by advocating against Democratic candidate Barack Obama in meetings with employees. Wal-Mart spokesman David Tovar says that if anyone representing the company “gave the impression we were telling associates how to vote, they were wrong and acting without approval.”