IN BRIEF
Business Press, UNLV launching competition
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas Center for Entrepreneurship and the Las Vegas Business Press is launching a business plan competition that will be open to entrepreneurs of any experience level.
The competition is open to any resident of Clark, Nye or Lincoln counties age 18 or older.
Submitted proposals must call for the business to be incorporated in Nevada and must present either a new idea or an early stage company. Eligible entries must be original and the proposed business must not have generated any sales prior to the competition, with the exclusion of a test-marketing project.
Business proposals should not be engaged primarily in retail sales, real estate or the provision of health care or other professional services.
The competition will have three stages, with winners and finalists walking away with upward of $50,000 in cash and prizes.
Applications can be submitted through the UNLV Center for Entrepreneurship Web site and at www. lvbusinesspress.com.
MGM shares surge after condo price cut
MGM Mirage shares rose as much as 6.4 percent after cutting the price of condominiums at the CityCenter project by 30 percent to reflect the drop in housing prices in Las Vegas.
MGM Mirage gained 59 cents, or 5.1 percent, to $12.13 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading on Tuesday, after rising as high as $12.28. Shares of the biggest Strip casino operator had dropped 16 percent this year before Tuesday.
The casino company and state-owned Dubai World are building 2,400 condos at CityCenter, the $8.5 billion project on the Strip.
The reductions for existing buyers will be offered at residences at Mandarin Oriental, Veers Towers and Vdara Condo Hotel, MGM Mirage said Monday.
NEW YORK
Delphi emerges from Chapter 11 protection
Auto supplier Delphi said Tuesday that it has completed a deal with its lenders to allow it to exit bankruptcy protection nearly four years to the day it filed for Chapter 11.
Delphi Holdings LLP, created by the company's emergence from bankruptcy court oversight, said it has finished acquiring most of Delphi Corp.'s core businesses as called for in its restructuring plan.
Rodney O'Neal will remain the Troy, Mich.-based company's president and CEO. The company's current executives will continue to manage its global operations, Delphi said.
ST. LOUIS
Emerson Electric to buy Avocent for $1.2 billion
Emerson Electric Co. said Tuesday it has agreed to buy Avocent Corp. for about $1.2 billion in cash, a move the company says will offer customers better management of their data centers.
The manufacturing and technology services company said it will offer $25 per share for Avocent, a 22 percent premium over Monday's closing price.
Huntsville, Ala.-based Avocent makes network equipment and software and had sales of about $657 million last year.
St. Louis-based Emerson expects the deal to close around Jan. 1.
LONDON
British Airways will cut staff, reduce crews
British Airways PLC is shedding 1,000 jobs, putting 3,000 more employees on part-time work and reducing the size of cabin crews at Heathrow in an effort to get the troubled airline's finances back in order, a spokesman said Tuesday.
BA spokesman Paul Marston said the company was in "a very serious financial position" and was working to turn itself around with aggressive cost-cutting. The job losses and part-time work, which he said were voluntary, would be the equivalent of cutting 1,700 positions.
WASHINGTON
Forecasts call for drop in winter heating costs
Staying warm won't be quite as expensive this winter.
People who heat with natural gas should do especially well, seeing their lowest bills in five years. But no matter what fuel is used, heating costs are expected to take less of a bite out of household budgets in the coming months -- from $20 to as much as $280 lower than last winter depending on what fuel is used, the government says.
An expected milder winter, along with lower fuel costs, should cut average residential heating expenditures by 8 percent from last year, the Energy Information Administration said in its annual winter outlook on Tuesday.
CHICAGO
Have it your way, but please sit down first
Burger King Corp. plans to swap its generic fast-food feel and bland tiles and tabletops for a vibe that's more sit-down than drive-through.
As part of a plan to be revealed today in Amsterdam, the company will announce an effort to overhaul its 12,000 locations worldwide.
The sleek interior includes rotating red flame chandeliers, brilliant TV-screen menus and industrial-inspired corrugated metal and brick walls.
The makeover comes with an upscale price: The new look is expected to cost franchisees, who operate 90 percent of Burger King's locations, between $300,000 to $600,000 per restaurant.
Burger King said it expects about 75 more redesigned restaurants to be open by the end of next year.
