CITY

SIRIUS’S KARMAZIN BUYS 1.5 MILLION SHARES AT $5.36 EACH Mel Karmazin, the new chief executive officer of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., bought 1.5 million shares of the company’s stock for a total of $8.04 million. Mr. Karmazin purchased the shares for $5.36 each on November 19, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. New York-based Sirius named Karmazin, the former president of Viacom Inc., to be chief executive on Nov. 18, effective immediately. Sirius, the second-largest pay-radio company, hired Mr. Karmazin a month after enticing talk show host Howard Stern to leave Viacom in 2006.The satellite-radio company, which has never posted an annual profit and has 700,000 subscribers, is trying to reverse losses by acquiring new programming. Sirius is paying Mr. Karmazin $1.25 million in annual salary plus bonuses over the five-year contract. He’ll also get 3 million restricted shares and options to buy 30 million more. Stern signed a five-year contract that will cost the New York based company $500 million.

– Bloomberg News

REGIONAL

TOYS ‘R’ US NARROWS THIRD-QUARTER LOSS ON REAL-ESTATE SALE Toys ‘R’ Us Inc., the nation’s second-biggest toy retailer, reported a narrower third quarter loss as a gain on the sale of Kids ‘R’ Us stores boosted results despite a sales decline. Company officials, meanwhile, said yesterday that the New Jersey-based company expects to separate its Toys ‘R’ Us business from its fast-growing Babies ‘R’ Us operations in the first half of 2005. Babies ‘R’ Us stores sell furniture, apparel, and accessories. Toys ‘R’ Us, second only to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in toy sales, reported it lost $25 million, or 12 cents a share, in the three months ended October 30.That compared with a loss of $46 million, or 22 cents a share, in the year-ago period. The results included a $23 million gain from the sale of Kids ‘R’ Us real estate and $12 million in charges from the closing of the Kids ‘R’ Us stores. The Wayne, N.J.-based toy retailer, which has been faced with fierce competition from discounters, particularly Wal-Mart, and has been mulling the possible sale of its toy business, said third-quarter sales fell 1.4% to $2.21 billion from $2.25 billion a year ago.

– Associated Press

NATIONAL

PULITZER SHARES SURGE ON POSSIBLE SALE Shares of Pulitzer Inc. surged more than 17% yesterday, the day after the newspaper publisher said it was considering a possible sale or other options to increase shareholder value.

The company, which publishes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Arizona Daily Star, and about a dozen other dailies, said in a statement Sunday that no decisions have been made and no agreements have been reached. Pulitzer said it is exploring “a range of strategic alternatives” and has retained Goldman, Sachs & Co. as financial adviser to assist in its review.

Shares rose $9.44 to $64.25 in midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange, well above its 52-week closing high of $56.64.

The Pulitzer Inc. board of directors planned to meet yesterday in St. Louis for what Michael Pulitzer described to the Post-Dispatch as a long-planned meeting to discuss end-of-the-year business. Pulitzer officials did not return phone calls.

No decision has been made, Pulitzer president and chief executive Robert Woodworth said in an e-mail sent to employees Sunday. The process of exploring options could take months, he said.

Decisions about the future of Pulitzer Inc. rest largely with members of the Pulitzer family because they own nearly 90% of the controlling stock. A listed telephone number was not available for Emily Rauh Pulitzer, Pulitzer Inc.’s biggest shareholder. She is the widow of Joseph Pulitzer Jr., whose grandfather built the company that became Pulitzer Inc. She has voting power equal to 49.6 percent of all shares, according to the proxy statement for Pulitzer’s 2004 annual meeting.

– Associated Press

MCDONALD’S CHIEF EXECUTIVE CHARLIE BELL RESIGNS McDonald’s Corp., the world’s largest restaurant chain, said that its chief executive and president, Charlie Bell, has resigned to focus on his fight against cancer.

The company’s vice chairman, Jim Skinner, 60, has been named chief executive, the Oak Brook, Ill.-based company said in a statement. The chief executive of Mc-Donald’s USA, Mike Roberts, was named president and chief operating officer.

Mr. Bell resigned “to devote all of his time and energy to his courageous battle against cancer,” the chairman, Andrew J. McKenna, said in the release.

Mr. Bell, who took over in April when James Cantalupo died of an apparent heart attack, pushed the company into the $17.3 billion market for deli sandwiches, the fastest-growing American fast-food segment. He also focused on boosting lagging sales in Europe.

The 44-year-old Mr. Bell, who started flipping burgers at an Australian McDonald’s at age 15, underwent colon cancer surgery in May and another operation in August.

A spokesman, Walt Riker, declined to comment on Mr. Bell’s health or say whether he had returned to the hospital.

As vice chairman, Mr. Skinner oversaw McDonald’s operations in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. Mr. Skinner, who started his career as a restaurant manager trainee in Illinois in 1971, was president of McDonald’s Europe between 1997 and 2001.

– Bloomberg News

KRISPY KREME POSTS LOSS, SCRAPS REVENUE FORECAST Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. posted a third-quarter loss as same-store sales fell for the first time as a public company and costs rose. The company’s shares declined the most in six months after it pulled its sales forecast.

The no. 2 American doughnut maker missed analysts’ estimates, losing $3 million, or 5 cents a share, compared with net income of $14.5 million, or 23 cents, a year earlier. Revenue increased 1.4% while sales at stores open at least a year fell 6.4 percent in the quarter ended Oct. 31, the Winston-Salem, N.C.-based company in a statement.

Krispy Kreme, whose shares soared more than nine fold after its initial public offering, had an expense of $5.5 million partly from closing four stores. The company, which is under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for its accounting practices, plans to test a sugar-free doughnut to boost sales by year’s end.

“The company is out of control and they are not giving guidance,” said David Rocker, managing partner at Rocker Partners LLC in Millburn, N.J., who has a short position on an undisclosed number of shares. “You have rising debt, falling equity and particularly falling same-stores sales.”

After its April 2000 public offering the company’s shares rose to a peak of $49.74 on August 19 last year. Shares fell $1.86, or 16%, to $9.64 in New York Stock Exchange trading. As of yesterday, shares have plummeted more than 80%.

– Bloomberg News

FOREIGN

DAIMLERCHRYSLER CHIEF’S ARMORED MERCEDES STOLEN DaimlerChrysler AG’s chief executive officer, Juergen Schrempp, had his S600 Mercedes-Benz armored limousine stolen while it was parked on a street in Stuttgart, the German city in which the carmaker is based.

The black company car, which is worth about 800,000 euros ($1 million), disappeared on the night of Oct. 26, police spokesman Klaus-Peter Arand said in a telephone interview.

The limousine, which sports a 12-cylinder engine and is equipped with a broadcasting device to help retrieve the car, hasn’t yet been found, the police said.

Mr. Schrempp, 60, has been CEO of DaimlerChrysler since 1995. Hartmut Schick, a spokesman for the world’s fifth-largest carmaker, confirmed the theft without giving details.

The S600 is the top limousine with the Mercedes brand. The cheapest version of the car costs 129,398 euros, according to the company’s Web site. The stolen vehicle had bullet-proof windows, “finger-thick” steel plates as part of its chassis as well as tires designed to keep it running even when flat, Bild-Zeitung reported yesterday. The car was probably stolen by the “Russian mafia,” the German newspaper said, citing an unidentified investigator.

– Bloomberg News