Halliburton fires two

Halliburton Co. fired two consultants for behavior it called unethical, including the former chairman of a subsidiary under investigation in an alleged $180 million bribery scandal involving a natural gas project contract in Nigeria. The oil services conglomerate said it was ''terminating all relationships" with consultant A. Jack Stanley, who retired in December 2003 as chairman of subsidiary KBR, formerly known as Kellogg, Brown & Root, for ''the receipt by these persons of improper personal benefits." The company said it also fired a consultant identified only as a former employee of M.W. Kellogg Ltd., a joint venture in which KBR has a 55 percent interest. (AP)

Spinoff terms disclosed

Blockbuster Inc. said it would pay stockholders $5 per share, or $905 million, as part of the movie-rental chain's separation from parent company Viacom Inc. Viacom, the entertainment giant whose holdings include CBS, MTV, and Nickelodeon, expects to complete the divestiture of its 81.5 percent stake in Blockbuster during the third quarter. Viacom expects to get a tax-free cash payment of $738 million as part of Blockbuster's distribution to shareholders. (AP)

FCC sets auction date

The Federal Communications Commission scheduled a Jan. 12 auction of 234 radio-airwave licenses that were returned from NextWave Telecom Inc. and other companies and can be used for mobile-telephone services. The FCC seeks total minimum opening bids of $751.2 million for the licenses, according to a notice from the agency. About half the licenses will be sold only to companies and backers with less than $125 million in annual revenue. Some licenses were part of a 2001 FCC auction, later voided, that fetched $15.9 billion in bids from Verizon Wireless, the largest US operator, and competitors. NextWave reached an agreement with the government in April to return most of its licenses won in auctions in 1996 and 1997. The company filed for bankruptcy in 1998 after it couldn't pay $4.3 billion for the spectrum. The FCC reclaimed and reauctioned the licenses, and after a legal fight, the Supreme Court in 2003 allowed NextWave to keep the spectrum. (Bloomberg)

Merger's impact feared

Oracle Corp. offered discounts of more than 70 percent to dozens of customers to beat bids by PeopleSoft Inc., an economist testified, bolstering government claims that an Oracle takeover of PeopleSoft would drive up prices. In one instance, Oracle offered to cut $2.5 million, or 83 percent, off the list price of human resource software at Teradyne Inc., documents presented at an antitrust trial in San Francisco showed. Kenneth Elzinga, a University of Virginia professor, testified that such discounts may disappear if Oracle acquires its rival in a $7.7 billion hostile takeover. The Justice Department says allowing Oracle, the third-largest supplier of business applications software, to acquire number two PeopleSoft would give Oracle leverage to raise prices. because only Oracle, PeopleSoft, and Germany's SAP AG supply ''high function" financial management software. (Bloomberg)

United Airlines to reapply

United Airlines worked to strengthen its case for government financial backing, its bankruptcy plans in limbo after a federal board's initial ruling that its requested $1.6 billion loan guarantee isn't needed. Contending that its willingness to accommodate change to its financial blueprint was overlooked, United informed the Air Transportation Stabilization Board that it accepted the panel's offer to modify its application and will do so. The company expects its appeal to be resolved in ''a matter of days, not weeks," United bankruptcy attorney James Sprayregen told a federal bankruptcy judge. The ambiguity has left creditors and unions to speculate about the possibility of further concessions after 18 months of deep cost-cutting in bankruptcy. (AP)