BUSINESS BRIEFS
Aluminum maker Alcoa accused in overseas bribery
Associated Press
PITTSBURGH — The U.S. Justice Department has begun a criminal investigation into whether aluminum maker Alcoa Inc. participated in bribery in the Persian Gulf state of Bahrain.
In documents filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, federal prosecutors asked a judge to halt a federal civil lawsuit that accused Pittsburgh-based Alcoa of bribing officials through overseas shell companies to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in overpayments.
Aluminum Bahrain B.S.C., also known as Alba, in which the Bahrain government holds a 77 percent stake, is seeking more than $1 billion in damages from Alcoa and other affiliated defendants, according to a federal lawsuit filed last month.
AT&T OWES FCC $1.3B PAYMENT
NEW YORK — AT&T says it will pay an initial down payment of $1.3 billion to the Federal Communications Commission for its portion of wireless spectrum licenses it won in a government airwaves auction.
AT&T says it will pay the down payment, of which $500 million was paid before the start of the auction, within the next 10 business days, according to a regulatory filing yesterday. The remaining balance of $5.3 billion will be paid on or before April 17.
The San Antonio, Texas-based company says it will use funds from operations and either short-term or long-term debt to pay the purchase price.
On Thursday, the FCC announced the winners of a record-setting auction. The spectrum was made available thanks to the transition to digital broadcasting.
3COM APPROVES $2.2B BAIN BUYOUT
WASHINGTON — In approving a defunct $2.2 billion buyout by Bain Capital Partners LLC and its Chinese partner, 3Com shareholders cleared the way for a legal battle over a $66 million breakup fee.
In a filing yesterday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 3Com said nearly 70 percent of its shareholders were in favor of the acquisition by the Boston-based private-equity firm and Huawei Technologies Co.
On Thursday, Bain said it was ending its efforts to complete the acquisition, citing impeding national security concerns by the U.S. government.
3Com, which is based in Marlborough, Mass., is disputing Bain's reasons for pulling out of the deal. It also has said it will pursue the $66 million breakup fee.
Bain said it offered 3Com several proposals, including revising financial terms and restructuring the deal, to satisfy national security concerns, but failed to reach an agreement with 3Com. Bain said it also had been notified that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States intended to block the deal.
B. BRAUN MEDICAL RECALLS HEPARIN
WASHINGTON — A manufacturer of the blood thinner heparin initiated a nationwide recall yesterday because some products may contain a potentially dangerous contaminant. Contaminated heparin from a different manufacturer has been associated with 19 deaths and hundreds of allergic reactions.
In the recall announced yesterday, B. Braun Medical Inc. said it was recalling 23 lots of heparin as a precaution. No adverse events have been reported in connection with their product, company officials said in a press release.
The company issued the recall after one of its suppliers, Wisconsin-based Scientific Protein Laboratories, disclosed that an ingredient it provided contained oversulfated chondroitin sulfate, a chemical that does not occur naturally.
Federal officials are investigating how the contaminant got into the drug.
Heparin is derived from a mucus obtained from pig intestines and other animal tissues, often processed by small, unregistered workshops in China. Scientific Protein Laboratories owns a Chinese factory — Changzhou SPL — and buys additional raw heparin from other Chinese suppliers.
