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The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 14, 2009

Suntasia Settles For $50 Million

The Federal Trade Commission announced Tuesday that 14 defendants of Suntasia Marketing Inc. agreed to pay $16 million to settle charges. With an additional $33 million from another settlement, the total restitution will be nearly $50 million.

The FTC alleged that when Suntasia called consumers to offer supposedly free trial memberships in its travel and discount buyer's programs, the company deceived consumers into giving out their financial information and later charged them without authorization. Nearly one million consumers were affected, the commission said.

Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Merge

Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley are combining their brokerages in a deal that shows how much Citigroup wants to slim down and build up cash. Morgan Stanley is paying Citigroup $2.7 billion for a 51 percent stake in the joint venture.

Citigroup's retail brokerage, Smith Barney, was once the crown jewel in its wealth management business.

Citigroup is expected to post a fifth straight quarterly loss next week.

The government already has lent it $45 billion, more than other large banks received, and agreed to absorb losses on a huge pool of Citigroup mortgages and other assets.

Yahoo Names New CEO

Yahoo Inc. confirmed it has hired Silicon Valley veteran Carol Bartz as its new chief executive.

Tuesday's decision ends a two-month search to replace Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang. His reign as CEO was marred by his refusal to sell Yahoo to Microsoft for $47.5 billion,- about $30 billion more than Yahoo is worth now.

Bartz, 60, spent 14 years as the CEO of software maker Autodesk and became its executive chairman in 2006. She previously worked as a top executive at Sun Microsystems.

Pfizer To Lay Off Up To 800

Pfizer Inc., the world's biggest drug company, is laying off up to 800 scientists this year in its latest effort to refocus disappointing research efforts and cut its massive overhead ahead of an anticipated crash in revenue.

Pfizer plans to reduce its global research staff of about 10,000 people by 5 percent to 8 percent this year, a company spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Neiman Marcus Cuts Workers

Luxury department store retailer Neiman Marcus Group Inc. said Tuesday that it is cutting approximately 375 jobs, or nearly 3 percent of its work force. Spokeswoman Ginger Reeder said in a telephone interview that the layoffs were made as the privately held company tries to deal with the challenging economic environment and looks for ways to ensure it is operating efficiently.

The Associated Press

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