IN BRIEF

Icahn completes purchase of Fontainebleau Las Vegas

Billionaire corporate raider Carl Icahn completed a $150 million purchase of the unfinished Fontainebleau Las Vegas late Thursday.

Icahn, through New York-based Icahn Enterprises, paid $106 million for the 3,889-room Strip project and $45 million in financing fees during bankruptcy proceedings.

"The acquisition of the Fontainebleau property was a great opportunity to purchase a distressed asset that I believe has considerable value," Icahn said in a statement.

The Fontainebleau property includes a hotel tower and building totaling 7 million square feet that sits on 25 acres at the northern end of the Strip.

Construction stopped on the Fontainebleau last April when lenders cut off $800 million in financing.

The project, which was 70 percent complete at the time, once had a construction budget of nearly $3 billion.

Icahn told the Review-Journal last month that he would most likely wait for an uncertain amount of time before he would consider restarting the project.

"We've always liked Las Vegas, but it's probably overbuilt a bit too much," Icahn said.

Sands aims to add table games to Bethlehem casino by summer

Las Vegas Sands Corp. filed a formal application with Pennsylvania gaming regulators to add 80 table games to its casino in Bethlehem, Pa., by early summer.

Pennsylvania lawmakers, with the support of the governor, changed state gaming laws to allow the state's slot machine-only casinos to add table games in exchange for a tax on revenues.

If approved, the company plans to place games such as blackjack, craps, roulette, poker and baccarat on the Sands Bethlehem's casino floor, which currently houses 3,000 slot machines.

"When the first card is dealt, Sands Bethlehem instantly becomes the most convenient gaming location for millions of New York City and northern New Jersey residents," said casino President Robert DeSalvio.

Las Vegas Sands President Michael Leven said success from table games could allow the company to move forward with other expansion initiatives at the casino, including a hotel and convention space.

CHICAGO

Boeing sends out more than 1,000 layoff notices to staff

Boeing Co. said on Friday that it sent layoff notices to more than 1,000 people, most of them technology workers in Washington state and California.

The notices mean the workers are at risk of being laid off April 23. Spokesman Tim Healy said it's possible the final number of layoffs could shrink.

Healy said 500 of the workers are in the Puget Sound area in Washington, where Boeing's commercial airplanes division is based. Roughly 300 are in California, with the rest of the affected workers scattered in other states.

The layoffs announced Friday are part of the 10,000 job cuts Boeing originally targeted for 2009. Late last year it said it would meet and then exceed that goal of 10,000 job cuts during 2010.

DETROIT

Chrysler Group plans to keep Michigan assembly plant open

Chrysler Group LLC plans to keep its Sterling Heights, Mich., assembly plant open through 2012, preserving 1,200 jobs building the Sebring and Dodge Avenger midsize cars, the automaker said Friday.

The plant near Detroit had been set to close in 2011. But Chrysler agreed to acquire it for $20 million from the company that has managed the automaker's remaining assets since its emergence from bankruptcy last year.

"There is no commitment on the future ... beyond 2012," Chrysler said in a statement.

In court documents filed Thursday, Old Carco LLC -- the so-called old Chrysler -- requested an order allowing it to sell the plant to Chrysler Group. The Italian automaker Fiat SpA owns a partial stake in Chrysler Group.

A hearing is scheduled for March 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.

WILMINGTON, Del.

Six Flags wins more time for bankruptcy reorganization

Theme park operator Six Flags Inc. will have more time to gain support for its bankruptcy reorganization.

A Delaware judge on Friday extended the company's exclusive right to reorganize until April 5. If the plan isn't approved following a trial next month, however, a group of noteholders could submit an alternative.

Under Six Flags' plan, holders of senior secured notes issued by Six Flags Operations Inc., a subsidiary, would receive about 93 percent of the equity in the reorganized company.

Holders of junior notes issued by Six Flags Inc. would receive only about 5 percent of new equity under the company's plan. They claim to have lined up $1.8 billion in financing for an alternative plan that would increase the recovery for creditors.

MIAMI

Fed officials file to halt Starwood-Hilton lawsuit

Federal prosecutors and agents are investigating possible charges including fraud and theft of trade secrets in a criminal probe of Hilton Hotels Corp. and two executives lured away from a competing hotel company, according to a motion filed Friday.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York sought to limit the sharing of information in a lawsuit pursued by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. against Hilton and two former Starwood executives, Ross Klein and Amar Lalvani.

The motion says charges of conspiracy, computer fraud, theft of trade secrets and interstate transportation of stolen goods are possible.

Federal agents took up the case after Starwood filed suit in April 2009 claiming Klein and Lalvani, who formerly headed the company's luxury hotels group, took more than 100,000 documents with confidential and privileged information and used them to create a Hilton "lifestyle" brand to compete against the W Hotel chain Starwood launched.

WASHINGTON

Regulators close four banks, putting 2010 closures at 20

Regulators have shut down banks in California, Illinois, Florida and Texas, boosting to 20 the number of U.S. bank failures this year following the 140 closures last year in the worst financial climate in decades.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over Marco Community Bank, on Florida's gulf coast. The bank had about $119.6 million in assets and $117.1 million in deposits.

Also seized was single-branch La Coste National Bank of La Coste, Texas, with $53.9 million in assets and $49.3 million in deposits.

The FDIC took over La Jolla Bank, FSB, in La Jolla, Calif., on Friday. The bank has 10 branches and about $3.6 billion in assets.

Also seized was George Washington Savings Bank in Orland Park, Ill., with $412.8 million in assets.