Business Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

CITY
TISHMAN SPEYER-LED GROUP TO BUY TIMES BUILDING FOR $175 MILLION
A team headed by real estate developer Tishman Speyer Properties affirmed its bullish outlook for New York’s commercial real estate market by signing an agreement to buy the New York Times building at 229 West 43rd St. for $175 million.
The investor group, which includes Tishman Speyer, the New York City Employees Retirement System, and the Teachers’ Retirement System, has been on an acquisition tear in New York in 2004.It snapped up the Lipstick building at 885 Third Ave. in Manhattan and a 3 million-square-foot development site in Long Island City earlier this year, and is currently under contract to buy another two Manhattan office buildings in addition to the New York Times building. “And we’re actively looking to continue to increase our portfolio here,” said Tishman’s senior managing director, Robert Speyer.
The $175 million price tag on the New York Times building works out to about $238 a square foot, Mr. Speyer said. The acquisition is expected to close by yearend, at which time the property will be leased back to New York Times Co. until the newspaper company moves into its new headquarters in mid-2007. At that time, Tishman plans a top-to-bottom gut renovation of the building’s interior to transform the property into a state-of-the-art class A building, complete with about 100,000 square feet of retail space in the loading dock area.
– Dow Jones Newswires
REGULATORY
TASER SHARES SOAR AS GOVERNMENT OKAYS USE BY AIRLINE
Taser International Inc. shares jumped 16% after the U.S. Transportation Security Administration approved the company’s stun guns for use on Korean Air Lines flights to the U.S.
The shares rose $7.62 to $54.12 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading, increasing the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company’s market value by $226 million.
The approval is the first in America for the use of stun guns on an airplane. The guns will be available to “specially trained personnel” on board, Korean Air spokeswoman Penny Pfaelzer said. The approval may lead other carriers such as United Airlines to apply to the TSA for use of the guns on their planes, Taser president and co-founder Tom Smith said in an interview.
“No one wanted to be the first, but now that this airline has received approval, others may try,” Mr. Smith said. “United bought 1,300 Tasers and trained pilots, but they had to focus on managing the airline to stay out of bankruptcy before they got approval.”
– Bloomberg News
MARSH OUSTS TWO TOP EXECUTIVES
Two top executives of scandal-tarred insurance firm Marsh Inc. were ousted yesterday, the company said, the latest casualties of an industry probe by New York’s attorney general.
Roger Egan, president and chief operating officer of Marsh, and Christopher Treanor, chairman and chief executive of the firm’s global placement business, were “asked to step down from their positions,” the company said.
“These management decisions were difficult and were not based on any suggestion of culpability,” Michael Cherkasky, president and CEO of the firm’s parent company, Marsh & McLennan Cos., said in a written release. “However, at the end of the day, Mr. Egan and Mr. Treanor were accountable for the areas of the business that have been the focus of investigations…and, therefore, we thought it was appropriate to make these changes.”
– Associated Press
NASD ACCUSES H&R BLOCK FINANCIAL ADVISORS OF FRAUD
H&R Block’s financial advisory unit was charged by the NASD with civil fraud for selling $16 million of Enron Corporation bonds in the weeks before the energy company collapsed.
About 200 H&R Block Financial Advisors brokers sold the debt to more than 800 customers in October and November 2001, NASD said in a statement distributed by PRNewswire. Enron filed for Chapter 11 protection in December 2001 in what was then the biggest bankruptcy in American history.
H&R Block paid the brokers sales credits for the Enron debt that were “significantly higher” than those typically paid for similar bonds, according to the NASD statement. H&R Block earned $500,000 in profit on the sales, the NASD said.
H&R Block plans to fight the allegations, said a spokesman, Dan Grubbs.
– Bloomberg News