Philips Medical Systems North America of Bothell, the parent company of ATL Ultrasound, has won a $35 million contract to provide ATL ultrasound equipment to the military and federal agencies. The contract is for a year, with four one-year options. SonoSite Inc., also of Bothell and an ATL spinoff company, won a $5 million contract to provide its portable ultrasound equipment under the same contract terms.
A mortgage lender has been ordered to return $712,000 to Washington state borrowers after a judge found that the company, Nationscapital Mortgage Corp., imposed prohibited fees, didn’t provide proper disclosure and used deceptive practices. The company operated as a mortgage broker in Bellevue until being ordered to shut down in 1998. It made loans around the Puget Sound area, including clients in Snohomish County, according to the state Department of Financial Institutions. The judge’also fined the California company $495,000 and fined it owner, Jamie Chisick, $245,000.
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Wednesday that it will propose changes to tighten corporate disclosure rules. Among other things, the new rules would require prompter filing by companies of their quarterly and annual reports ,and of stock purchases and sales by company officers and directors.
Facing the threat of a crippling strike within a week, United Airlines scheduled urgent new talks with its mechanics’ union Wednesday after its contract offer was resoundingly rejected. Officials at the world’s second-biggest airline agreed to meet with union negotiators in Chicago starting Friday, just a few days before the mechanics can legally strike.
Comcast Corp. promised amid criticism Wednesday to immediately stop recording the Web browsing activities of its 1 million high-speed Internet subscribers. One congressman said collecting the data may have broken federal law. The president of Comcast’s cable communications division, Stephen Burke, said the company will stop storing the information “to completely reassure our customers that the privacy of their information is secure.” Comcast said the decision was part of a technology overhaul to save money and speed up the network and was not intended to infringe on customers’ privacy.
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