Business Briefly
Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, December 23, 2003
Former managers of Seattle-based Fisher Properties Inc. have bought out the commercial real estate firm from its parent company and renamed it Egis Real Estate Services. The move came after Fisher Communications Inc. sold off many of its real estate holdings, including the Fisher Business Center in Lynnwood. Mark Weed is president of the new firm, which still manages Fisher Business Center, the MILA Financial Center in Mountlake Terrace and other properties.
A California firm will license a targeted-cell molecule developed by Bothell-based Seattle Genetics Inc., the two companies announced Tuesday. Protein Design Labs of Fremont, Calif., will pay an undisclosed amount for an exclusive license to use the technology. Since 2001, Seattle Genetics and Protein Design Labs have collaborated on work involving antibody-drug conjugates, which use antibodies to target specific cells with potent drugs. That approach can reduce the toxic effects of traditional cancer treatments on other cells. Last week, Seattle Genetics and biotechnology giant Genentech Inc. widened a similar research agreement on these experimental conjugates. In return, Genentech paid a fee of $3 million and bought $7 million of Seattle Genetics’ stock.
The Justice Department on Tuesday ended its two-year-old antitrust investigation into the music industry’s online ventures, finding ample competition exists in today’s world of digital music. “Consumers now have available to them an increasing variety of authorized outlets from which they can purchase digital music, and consumers are using those services in growing numbers,” said R. Hewitt Pate, assistant attorney general for the antitrust division. The investigation, begun in 2001, involved joint ventures put together by major record labels, pressplay and MusicNet, to distribute music over the Internet.
After two virtually flat months, consumer spending rose moderately in November, indicating that while consumers are still increasing their purchases, they are doing so in the year’s final quarter at a much slower pace than in the booming July-September period, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. In contrast, personal incomes rose a strong 0.5 percent last month, the best gain in six months. An improving job market lifted wages and salaries at an annual rate of $20.6 billion, also the largest monthly rise since May. Personal income from rents and from unincorporated businesses also rose strongly.
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