IN BRIEF

Trustee's sale of Strip land is postponed

A trustee's sale of 18 acres on the Strip across from CityCenter was postponed six weeks so the land owners can continue negotiations with lenders on a mortgage loan default.

New York-based FX Real Estate & Entertainment, which had planned to develop an Elvis-themed resort on the land, said lenders agreed to postpone the this week's sale until Oct. 21, a Wednesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said.

FX is "considering all possible legal options, including bankruptcy proceedings, in the event ... discussions with the lenders prove to be unsuccessful," the filing said.

The company announced in December it had defaulted on a $475 million loan from Credit Suisse. The property has been under the control of a court-appointed receiver since June 23.

The land stretches from the Harley-Davidson Cafe on the corner of Harmon Avenue and the Strip to the Smith & Wollensky building just north of the MGM Grand.

The land's value has dropped to $218.8 million -- compared with the $221.3 million it cost to acquire the land between March 1998 and May 2005 -- the company's second-quarter filing shows.

Pair of local Starbucks shops spared closure

Coffee fiends take heart: two Southern Nevada Starbucks stores that had been earmarked for closure will stay open after all.

In January, Starbucks said it would close 15 underperforming local stores as part of an effort to close 200 stores and cut 6,700 jobs nationwide.

But at the Goldman Sachs Global Retail Conference in New York on Wednesday, Starbucks Chief Financial Officer Troy Alstead said his company dropped 30 U.S. stores from the list after their performance improved.

The spared local shops are inside the Barnes & Noble bookstore at 567 N. Stephanie St. in Henderson and at 651 N. Rainbow Blvd. Suite 110 in Las Vegas.

Reuters reported that Alstead said his company has reduced stores' wasted coffee and milk, made employee scheduling more efficient and, in some cases, renegotiated rents.

Fontainebleau hearing continued till Sept. 22

A venue hearing in the Fontainebleau Las Vegas bankruptcy scheduled for Wednesday was continued until Sept. 22 at the request of the development's attorneys.

The hearing is for a motion that could transfer the case from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Miami to Nevada.

The motion to transfer, which was filed in late June by 17 creditors holding more than $111 million liens, notes that 715 of the project's creditors are in Clark County, compared with 93 creditors in Florida.

The motion also says that the Fontainebleau subsidiaries are Nevada entities.

The Fontainebleau Las Vegas and two of its affiliates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy June 9 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of Florida, the home base of the project's owner.

Fontainebleau Las Vegas and two affiliates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors June 9. The stalled project is on 24 acres on the corner of Las Vegas and Riviera Boulevards.

CINCINNATI

Procter & Gamble cuts prices to adjust

The world's largest consumer products maker is finding that "new and improved" is still good, but "lower price" is working better.

The Procter & Gamble Co., a bellwether of consumer spending, has shifted tactics in the chase for bargain-hunting shoppers with price cuts, promotions emphasizing value, and even a shake-up of its famed laundry business.

After watching sales drop all year as households cut spending and traded down to cheaper competitors, P&G officials said Thursday they expect sales to start bouncing back this fall because of new products, lower prices and more promotions.

WASHINGTON

Money market fund program to end

The Obama administration said Thursday that a program used to guarantee as much as $3 trillion in money market mutual fund assets will end on schedule next week.

The program, which will be closed down on Sept. 18, had no direct cost to taxpayers and earned more than $1 billion in fees paid by the mutual fund industry, according to the Treasury Department.

It was established at the height of the financial crisis last fall after a large money market fund "broke the buck" -- meaning the value of its underlying assets fell below $1 for each investor dollar put in.

NEW YORK Morgan Stanley CEO resigning position

John Mack will step down as CEO of Morgan Stanley in January but will continue as chairman, the investment bank announced Thursday.

Mack will be succeeded by Co-President James Gorman.

Robert Kidder, lead director of Morgan Stanley, said in a statement that Mack told the board 18 months ago he wanted to step back from the CEO role when he turns 65 in November. Mack has led Morgan Stanley for four years.

Morgan Stanley has continued to post losses in the wake of the financial crisis, but has repaid the $25 billion in bailout money it got from the government. Mack has come under some criticism for scaling back the company's risk profile even as rivals like Goldman Sachs have regained momentum as the crisis has ebbed.

Morgan Stanley shares rose 9 cents, or 0.32 percent, Thursday to close at $28.64 on the New York Stock Exchange.

BERLIN

General Motors will sell Opel to parts seller

General Motors Co. will sell European unit Opel to Canadian auto parts maker Magna International and Russia's Sberbank in a deal that preserves GM's ability to develop new cars with its longtime subsidiary.

The announcement Thursday was a politically charged win for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who saw the deal as the best change to save jobs at a major employer less than three weeks before national elections on Sept. 27.

GM will see a 55-percent stake in Adam Opel GmbH transferred to the Canadian-Russian team but will keep 35 percent for itself, with 10 percent held by the workers. Opel had been placed in a trust with Germany holding 65 percent and GM 35 percent to keep it from being drawn into GM's restructuring under bankruptcy protection in the United States.

Video game sales tumble 16 percent

Boom! Not even John Madden and his trademark expressions could avert the crash in video game sales in August, which fell 16 percent from a year ago.

The drop was the industry's sixth consecutive monthly decline, a Thursday report from market research firm NPD Group Inc. shows.

That means sales of games and game consoles must grow 14 percent in the year's last four months for 2009 sales to be flat with 2008, NPD analyst Anita Frazier said.

Last month, even sales of Madden NFL 10, a popular football simulation game developed by Electronic Arts Inc., were down from a year ago, prompting EA Chief Executive John Riccitiello to say, "It is discouraging that one of our highest-rated and best-marketed Madden titles in years is facing strong headwinds."