3 plead not guilty in alleged ticket scam

COURTS

3 deny guilt in alleged ticket scam

Three men charged with using computer programs to illegally buy more than 1 million concert tickets for resale have pleaded not guilty in federal court in New Jersey.

Kenneth Lowson, Kristofer Kirsch and Joel Stevenson, all of California, each entered their pleas through their lawyers.

Bail was at $500,000 for Stevenson and $1 million for Kirsch. Lowson has a bail hearing Wednesday. They face conspiracy, wire fraud and other charges.

A fourth man, Faisal Nahdi, is overseas and expected to surrender in the next few weeks.

PHARMA

Bristol-Myers CEO will retire

Drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. says its chief executive will retire in May and be succeeded by the company’s chief financial officer.

The present CEO, James M. Cornelius, will remain as chairman at the request of the company’s board.

The board chose 59-year-old Lamberto Andreotti to take over as CEO. In addition to chief financial officer, Andreotti was named president and chief operating officer in March 2009. That positioned him to succeed Cornelius, who is now 66.

PUBLISHING

Dow Jones to buy out Hearst

News Corp.’s Dow Jones & Co. agreed to buy Hearst Corp.’s 50% stake in their SmartMoney joint venture to take complete ownership of the monthly personal finance magazine.

The acquisition includes SmartMoney, its website and a custom publishing unit, according to Dow Jones, owner of the Wall Street Journal. It didn’t disclose the financial terms of the deal. Dow Jones had shared ownership of SmartMoney with New York-based Hearst since 1991.

RETAIL

Staples shares fall on forecast

Staples Inc., the largest U.S. office supply retailer, said sales to both consumers and small businesses improved in the fourth quarter but gave a 2010 outlook that disappointed investors. Its shares fell more than 10%.

Staples also said fourth-quarter profit fell 18% to $233.9 million, or 32 cents a share. Removing one-time charges, profit was 38 cents, a penny short of analyst expectations.

Revenue grew 4% to $6.41 billion, ahead of the $6.3 billion Wall Street anticipated.

RESTAURANTS

Changes sought in Denny’s board

A Denny’s Corp. shareholder group said it would nominate three people to the restaurant chain’s board and said current directors have overseen a “significant destruction of shareholder value.”

The group, which is led by Oak Street Capital Management and Dash Acquisitions, said its members own about 6.5% of Denny’s shares.

INTERNET

Google unfair, Microsoft says

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer intends to keep the regulatory heat on Google as his company strives to lessen its rival’s dominance of Internet search.

In an appearance at a search engine conference in Santa Clara, Ballmer said Microsoft believes Google has an unfair advantage in the Internet’s lucrative search advertising market.

-- times wire reports