in brief

Solar Millennium receives right-of-way grant for project

California-based energy developer Solar Millennium said Monday that it has received federal Bureau of Land Management approval on a right-of-way grant for a big sun-powered project in Nye County.

Solar Millennium's Amargosa Farm Road solar project is planned to include two 250-megawatt generators with more than four hours of thermal-storage capacity to capture and use solar power after the sun has set. The project will be able to power as many as 150,000 homes a year.

The development will also generate about 1,300 direct building jobs during its three-year construction period, Solar Millennium said. Once fully operational, it will create more than 180 jobs.

Solar Millennium must still obtain permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the state of Nevada and municipalities near the plant. The company said it expects to break ground on Amargosa Farm Road in late 2011. It didn't disclose the cost of the plant.

SAN FRANCISCO

Google chip may one day let phones displace credit cards

Google is working on a new computer chip and software upgrade that the company believes will eventually enable mobile phones to replace credit cards.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt discussed the technology's potential Monday at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. He showed off the new phone with the device's name and manufacturer concealed.

Schmidt declined to address recent reports that Google's new phone will be called the "Nexus S" and will be manufactured by Samsung Electronics Co. Google Inc. unveiled a phone called the Nexus One to much fanfare earlier this year. The company stopped selling the Nexus One several months ago.

Google calls the next version of its Android software "Gingerbread." Schmidt says it will make its debut within the next few weeks.

Contract will extend president's tenure with Las Vegas Sands

Las Vegas Sands Corp. President Michael Leven has signed a new contract that will extend his position with the company until November 2012.

The casino operator announced the contract extension Monday.

Leven, 73, took over as company president in March 2009 after Bill Weidner was fired following the public airing of conflicts between the company's management team and Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson.

Leven has been a member of Las Vegas Sands board of directors since 2004. Leven, a former executive in the lodging industry with Holiday Inn Worldwide and president of Days Inn of America, founded US Franchise Systems, the hotel company that developed and franchised the Microtel Inns & Suites and Hawthorn Suites brands.

Revenue rises, loss widens for discounted-show-ticket seller

The market for heavily discounted show tickets has continued to grow, according to the third-quarter report of Tix Corp.

The company, which owns the Tix4Tonight outlets, reported that ticket revenues rose 30 percent from one year ago to $5.9 million in the quarter. Tix CEO Steve Francis said the gain was largely due to increased demand, with some coming from the acquisition of former rival All Access Entertainment this year. The dollar amount represents fees and commissions, historically amounting to about one-fifth of the ticket price.

The gross margin for ticket dropped, however, to 57 percent from 64 percent as the company expanded its staff and its rental costs rose.

Tix4Tonight has 10 locations on or near the Strip, selling tickets for same-day show performances reduced by as much as half from face value. The company also sells discounted meals, but on a much smaller scale.

For the first six months of this year, Tix sold 716,000 show tickets with a face value of $44 million. Numbers were not available for the third quarter.

Revenues for Studio City, Calif.-based Tix, which includes merchandising and performance production divisions, rose 88 percent to $17.3 million in the third quarter, but its loss widened to $3.3 million from $157,000 in 2009.

State attorney general's office files lawsuit against merger

The Nevada attorney general's office has filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against a $3.1 billion health care merger it says would reduce competition for psychiatric care in Las Vegas.

Senior Deputy Attorney General Brian Armstrong said the lawsuit filed Monday protects consumers from potential increases in cost and reductions in care.

The lawsuit is aimed at a proposed merger between Universal Health Services Inc. and Psychiatric Solutions Inc.

It demands that Psychiatric Solutions sell two area hospitals in Las Vegas to an approved buyer before moving forward with the merger.

CARSON CITY

Nevada tourism commission director resigning in December

Nevada Commission on Tourism Director Dann Lewis has resigned effective Dec. 17, Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki said Monday.

Lewis was appointed to the agency in early 2009 and helped steer it through period when the agency's operating budget was cut 41 percent.

Krolicki praised Lewis and said the tourism agency "has certainly benefited from the knowledge and experience that Mr. Lewis has brought to the agency, demonstrated by the extraordinary success of our advertising activities promoting Nevada's tourism attractions nationally and globally."

Larry Friedman, the state tourism agency's deputy director of sales and industry partners, will become interim director.

Pinnacle sues former chief who has proposed casino

Pinnacle Entertainment doesn't want its former chairman and chief executive officer building a competing casino in Lake Charles, La.

The Las Vegas-based casino operator filed a lawsuit against former chairman and CEO Dan Lee in Clark County District Court, saying his is violating his noncompete agreement because he is proposing to build the $400 million Mojito Pointe next to Pinnacle's L'Auberge du Lac.

Pinnacle scrapped plans this year to build Sugarcane Bay on the site, and decided to expand L'Auberge's casino. The company returned its gaming license for the project to the state. Lee and other casino operators are biding on the license, the 15th and final gaming license available in Louisiana.

Pinnacle is seeking an injunction barring Lee from using confidential information and recruiting Pinnacle employees for his Louisiana casino project.

Lee resigned from Pinnacle in November 2009 following his conduct at a St. Louis County Council. Lee angrily chastised a council member following a public vote that favored a competitor.

Lee later apologized and was cleared of wrongdoing by Missouri casino regulators over the incident.

Molycorp reports revenue increase to $8.4 million

Molycorp, which is reopening the rare earths mine south of Primm, stepped up sales of its stocks on hand during the third quarter to take advantage of soaring prices.

During the quarter, revenues more than quadrupled to $8.4 million, as prices for rare earths extracted from the site tripled and the poundage shipped to customers rose 44 percent. Due to the expenses associated with ramping up operations plus the value of stock options granted to senior employees, the net loss rose to $10.1 million, or 14 cents a share, from $6.9 million, or 18 cents a share, one year ago.

Rare earths are elements widely available but not often in economically viable concentrations. They are used, in tiny amounts, in everything from petroleum refining to hybrid cars to guidance systems in sophisticated weapons.

China produces 97 percent of the world's rare earths supplies. Although demand plummeted during the recession, rebounding manufacturing plus indications that China has already tightened exports and will go even farther caused rapidly escalating prices in the past year.

These concerns have propelled the rapid ascent of Molycorp shares from $14, when the company went public on Aug. 3, to a close of $33.20 on Monday.

The company plans to spend $531 million on renovating its mine, located at Mountain Pass, Calif., starting in January.

NEW YORK

Caterpillar buys Bucyrus
in $7.6 billion transaction

Caterpillar, the world's largest construction and mining equipment maker, moved aggressively to capitalize on demand in emerging markets Monday with a $7.6 billion buyout of Bucyrus International.

Bucyrus makes surface mining equipment used for coal, copper, iron ore, oil sands and other minerals.

Caterpillar Inc. has driven further into China, India and Brazil, where the appetite for raw materials used in construction and mining are strong.

To land Bucyrus, Caterpillar will pay $92 per share, a 32 percent premium to Bucyrus' closing price on Friday. The deal, which is valued at $8.6 billion including debt, is expected to close in mid-2011.