TELEVISION

KOPPEL TO JOIN DISCOVERY CHANNEL

Ted Koppel, former host of the ABC’s “Nightline,” will join Discovery Channel with nine former employees from the show to boost the channel’s global news coverage. Mr. Koppel, who left “Nightline” in November after 25 years as anchor of the newscast, will host and produce new programming as managing editor of the channel, Silver Spring, Md.-based Discovery Communications said yesterday in a PR Newswire statement. A “Nightline” executive producer, Tom Bettag, will also join Discovery. With the former ABC employees and Mr. Koppel, a 42-year veteran of the network, Discovery will air long-form documentaries including town hall meetings, the head of Discovery Networks in America, Billy Campbell, said in the statement. The first programs from the group are scheduled to air next season. Mr. Koppel, 65, and Mr. Bettag, who will begin immediately, signed multiyear contracts. Mr. Koppel will produce exclusively for the Discovery Channel.

– Bloomberg News

RETAIL

WAL-MART TO GO TO TRIAL OVER PLANNED STORE

Wal-Mart Stores will go to trial next month about a planned store in Atlanta, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported yesterday. The company has fought local opposition to a new store for three years, the paper said. Normally, such disputes are settled by commissioners in Fulton County, where the store is to be built, the paper said. The new Wal-Mart’s developer, Doug Crawford, filed suit after the county commission in 2004 rejected his request to rezone property to allow a new megastore, the paper said. Fulton Superior Court Judge Jackson Bedford ordered the commission to reconsider the rezoning request, which it did. In approving the rezoning request, it limited the store’s size to 55,000 square feet, the paper said. The developer said the store needs to be 185,000 square feet and a smaller store won’t be economically viable. The trial date is tentatively scheduled for February 17, the paper said.

– Bloomberg News

MUTUAL FUNDS

MORNINGSTAR NAMES TOP MUTUAL FUND MANAGERS

Christopher Davis and Ken Feinberg, who run the $9.5 billion Selected American Shares Fund, were named the best American stock mutual-fund managers of 2005 by research firm Morningstar. Rob Lyon, Matt Pickering, and Jerrold Senser of the ICAP International Fund were chosen best international fund managers, Chicago-based Morningstar said yesterday in a statement. The four managers of the Metropolitan West Total Return Bond Fund took top honors for fixed-income funds.

– Bloomberg News

IN THE COURTS

JUDGE ORDERS SCRUSHY TO RETURN $36.4 MILLION IN BONUSES

ATLANTA – A judge in Birmingham, Ala., ordered HealthSouth founder Richard M. Scrushy to return about $36.4 million in bonuses paid to him during the massive accounting fraud at the health-care company. In a ruling issued Tuesday, Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Allwin E. Horn III concluded that Mr. Scrushy wasn’t entitled to the performance-based bonuses he received from 1997 to 2002 because HealthSouth posted losses throughout that period. Those losses were concealed by the $2.7 billion accounting fraud, which made HealthSouth look profitable and triggered bonuses to Mr. Scrushy, who was fired shortly after the fraud was exposed in early 2003. Mr. Scrushy plans to appeal.

– Dow Jones Newswires

HEALTH INSURANCE

AETNA CEO TO RETIRE

The chief executive of Aetna, one of the nation’s largest health insurers, will retire next month, ending a tenure in which he led the once struggling company to renewed profitability and expanded operations that include specialty businesses and national participation in a new Medicare drug program. John W. Rowe also will retire as chairman before the end of the year, Aetna said. Aetna named President Ronald A. Williams, 56, to succeed Rowe as chief executive on February 14. An executive of an insurance rating service praised the succession, saying Williams’ close work with Rowe assures a continuation of the Hartford-based insurer’s successful financial plan.

– Associated Press