ENTERTAINMENT

MARTHA STEWART, SIRIUS TO PRODUCE 24-HOUR CHANNEL

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia agreed to produce a 24-hour lifestyle station for Sirius Satellite Radio, aiming to bring more woman listeners to a pay-radio service dominated by shows for men.

The channel will feature original programming on cooking, entertaining, crafts, and weddings, the companies said today in a statement. Sirius will pay Martha Stewart Living a guaranteed $30 million over four years, said Charles Koppelman, a vice chairman, in an interview.

Company founder Martha Stewart, 63, will speak on the radio and help develop programs, adding those duties to roles on two new television shows she’s taken on since being released from jail in March. Sirius is expanding a lineup that includes professional football, hockey, and Nascar auto racing. Morning host Howard Stern will begin broadcasting on Sirius next year.

With about 1.14 million subscribers for its 120 radio channels, New York based Sirius is the no. 2 satellite-radio service behind XM Satellite Radio. The company charges $12.95 a month and gets most of its revenue from subscription fees. Advertising accounted for 2% of revenue in the final quarter of last year.

– Bloomberg News

NATIONAL

ADOBE SYSTEMS TO ACQUIRE MACROMEDIA FOR $3.4 BILLION

Adobe Systems, maker of Acrobat and Photoshop software, agreed to buy Macromedia for about $3.4 billion, adding programs that animate Web sites as it prepares for a looming challenge from Microsoft.

Macromedia stockholders will receive 0.69 Adobe share for each of their shares, San Jose, Calif.-based Adobe said in a statement yesterday. That values San Francisco-based Macromedia at $41.86, a 25% premium to its closing price on April 15. Adobe’s chief executive, Bruce Chizen, said he wants a broader set of programs to fend off Microsoft, which plans to include more document features in the next version of its Windows software. Adobe would combine Macromedia’s Flash software, used in 98% of desktop computers, with its Acrobat software that is used to create and share PDF document files.

– Bloomberg News

COKE SAYS JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ENDS PROBE; SEC SETTLEMENT REACHED

Coca-Cola said yesterday that the Justice Department has closed its two-year-old investigation into allegations raised in a whistle-blower lawsuit of accounting irregularities at the world’s biggest soft-drink company without taking any action. Separately, the Atlanta-based company said it has reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over its business practices in Japan.

“We are pleased that today’s settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the decision by the Department of Justice to close its investigation, mark an end to the U.S. government inquiries initiated in 2003,” the chief executive, Neville Isdell, said in a statement.

The Justice Department probe involved allegations raised in a 2003 lawsuit filed by former Coke manager Matthew Whitley, who claimed he was fired in retaliation for reporting to senior management allegations of fraud and accounting irregularities.

Among other things, Mr. Whitley alleged that Coke rigged a marketing test at Burger King restaurants in 2000 and made false or misleading statements or omissions in connection with the reporting of sales volume.

Coke denied most of the allegations, but admitted that some of its officials undermined the marketing test. It later settled Mr. Whitley’s lawsuit for $540,000. In a memo to employees, Mr. Isdell said that under the settlement with the SEC, Coke has agreed to take unspecified remedial actions in the areas of corporate compliance and disclosure.

– Associated Press