MARKETING

ESPN TO OFFER NATIONAL WIRELESS PHONE SERVICE THROUGH SPRINT Sports cable channel ESPN will launch its own branded wireless phone service next year, the first in a series of branded cell phone services planned by The Walt Disney Company, which owns Connecticut-based ESPN.

The service, dubbed ESPN Mobile, will use the enhanced Sprint nationwide PCS network, Sprint and ESPN said yesterday.

The venture will sell ESPN-branded handsets, accessories, and applications, including access to sports headlines, photos, ring tones, and streaming audio and video over Sprint’s high-speed data network.

Like many companies, ESPN already provides games, ring tones, and other content to wireless devices using various mobile networks.

The new service will include the underlying phone service, and customers will receive bills directly from ESPN Mobile, which will also handle customer relations, distribution, and other operational aspects of the business.

– Associated Press

LOCAL

MAYOR GIULIANI STARTS INVESTMENT BANK Mayor Giuliani is opening an investment bank, Giuliani Capital Advisors LLC.

The investment bank will be a division of consulting firm Giuliani Partners LLC, according to a statement on Mr. Giuliani’s Web site. Many of the employees of the investment bank will come from Ernst & Young Corporate Finance LLC, a unit of New York-based accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP, which Giuliani Capital Partners is buying for an undisclosed amount.

Mr. Giuliani, 60, is trying to parlay the celebrity status he achieved after the attack on the World Trade Center into the role of deal-maker.

A Republican who had a prime-time speaking slot at his party’s national convention this summer, he gained attention in the 1980s for prosecuting some of the leading figures in Wall Street’s insider-trading scandal, including Michael Milken.

Steven D. Oesterle, a managing director at Giuliani Partners and former Ernst & Young vice chairman, will be chairman and chief executive officer of the investment bank.

– Bloomberg News

SWEDEN’S SKANSKA GETS CONTRACT TO RENOVATE N.Y. AMTRAK FACILITY Swedish construction giant Skanska AB said yesterday it received a contract worth $126.6 million from Amtrak to renovate ventilation and safety facilities in the East River tunnels in New York City.

Work will begin in January 2005 and is scheduled to be done by 2009.The contract will be included in its order bookings for the fourth quarter of 2004.

The project is part of Amtrak’s program to improve the safety of tracks and tunnels.

The ventilation system will be replaced and new airshafts added to ensure air supply and smoke ventilation. It will also improve access to and from the tunnels for emergency staff.

The tunnels accommodate Long Island Railroad trains and will remain in operation while work takes place.

– Associated Press

NATIONAL

FLORIDA-BASED SOUTHEAST AIRLINES CEASES OPERATIONS Southeast Airlines, a Florida-based discount airline serving seven destinations along the Atlantic seaboard and in the Midwest, announced that it has ceased operations.

The company said in a statement posted on its Website late Tuesday that it “has made its final landing and has ceased airline operations. We apologize for the inconvenience this will cause to our customers.”

The airline said the decision was due in part to high fuel costs. There was no answer at its Tampa Bay area corporate office early yesterday, and a company official could not immediately be reached for comment.

WTSP-TV in Tampa/St. Petersburg reported on its Web site that employees were called to the airline’s corporate headquarters Tuesday night, given their last paychecks, and told they no longer had jobs.

The airline served Allentown/Bethlehem, Pa.; Newburgh, N.Y.; Gary, Ind.; Columbus, Ohio; and three Florida locations: Fort Lauderdale, St. Petersburg/Clearwater, and Orlando.

– Associated Press

FORD’S NOVEMBER SALES FALL; TOYOTA, NISSAN, CHRYSLER GAIN Ford Motor Company, the second-largest American automaker, said American sales of cars and trucks fell 7.3% in November from a year earlier. Toyota Motor Corporation, DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler, and Nissan Motor Company all reported that sales rose.

Ford sold 236,855 vehicles, including a 14% decline for cars and a 4.3% drop for trucks, the company said in a statement. Toyota rose 4.4% to 154,727 vehicles, DaimlerChrysler increased 4.4% to 183,112 vehicles, and Nissan climbed 16% to 80,376 vehicles, the companies said.

November results often fall short as automakers offer sales in October to clear lots of older models and year-end sales are offered in December. “Of the last quarter, November is the weakest month,” Argus Research analyst Kevin Tynan said in an interview before sales figures were released.

– Bloomberg News

PROCTER & GAMBLE SEX PATCH MAY POSE RISKS, FDA SAYS Procter & Gamble Co.’s Intrinsa testosterone patch for boosting women’s sex drive may cause complications because the product also uses estrogen, which is linked to heart and cancer risk, American regulators said.

Congress is scrutinizing the Food & Drug Administration’s response to safety issues because studies linked Merck & Company’s Vioxx painkiller to heart attacks and strokes four years before its September 30 withdrawal. Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble, the biggest American maker of consumer goods, said the FDA staff’s questions were expected, and the shares rose.

The FDA’s staff review, released yesterday on the agency’s Web site, noted findings from a 2002 U.S. National Institutes of Health study. The research concluded that combining the hormones progesterone and estrogen increased the risk of heart attacks and breast cancer, the FDA reviewers said.

“It is unknown whether the addition of a different hormone, testosterone, might have similar and unanticipated adverse effects,” the FDA staff said in the review. Procter & Gamble’s research “includes only a very small number of subjects who have been treated beyond one year.” The review also questioned the treatment’s effectiveness.

A panel of FDA advisers will consider the company’s application and the staff comments today at a meeting in Gaithersburg, Md.

The agency will consider the advisory committee’s recommendation in deciding whether to clear the product for sale.

– Bloomberg News

MARKETS

CRUDE OIL PLUNGES MORE THAN $3 ON JUMP IN FUEL INVENTORIES Crude oil tumbled more than $3, its biggest decline in three years, on a rise in heating oil and diesel inventories that eased concerns about the adequacy of supplies for winter.

Supplies of distillate fuels, which include heating oil and diesel, climbed 2.3 million barrels to 117.9 million last week, the Energy Department report showed. An increase of 1.5 million was expected, according to the median forecast among 15 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Refineries used 94% of their capacity, a 1.1 percentage-point increase.

“We finally got the distillate number we were longing for,” said an analyst at Refco Group Inc. in New York, Marshall Steeves. “There was a recovery in refinery runs, which led to an increase in distillate stocks that was well above expectations.”

Crude oil for January delivery fell $3.68, or 7.5%, to $45.45 a barrel at the 2:30 p.m. close of floor trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was the biggest decline since a drop of $3.96 on September 24, 2001, when prices plunged because of terrorist attacks in America. Oil prices have declined 18% from a record of $55.67 on October 25.

– Bloomberg News