Frontier Bank received the Presidents Award from the Snohomish County Economic Development Council Wednesday in recognition of what the council called its notable support during 2001. The award was presented during the EDC’s annual meeting. The bank helped the council with a loan earlier this year, during the early stages of its fund-raising and expansion campaign, said Frontier vice president John Dickson. “We’re very concerned about the health of the local economy and the attraction of new business into the county,” he said. “We had faith in the EDC and extended them a line of credit so they could accomplish some of their objectives.”
The German government is set to sign an agreement for the long-planned purchase of 73 Airbus A400 military transport aircraft, Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping said Wednesday. The agreement would pave the way for a single pan-European procurement contract, worth an estimated 17 billion euros ($15.2 billion), under which eight nations would acquire a total of 196 of the planes.
Financial giant American Express said Wednesday it is slashing 5,500 to 6,500 jobs and will fall short of Wall Street’s fourth quarter earnings estimates because of the slump in travel following the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. The New York-based company said it will take a charge of between $240 and $280 million in severance pay and other charges.
The deficit in the broadest measure of foreign trade dropped to $94.98 billion in the July-September quarter, the lowest level in nearly two years, reflecting a surge in foreign insurance payments following the terrorist attacks and a big fall in imports because of the U.S. recession. The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that the deficit in the U.S. current account declined by 11.7 percent in the third quarter, compared to an imbalance of $107.58 billion in the April-June period.
Yahoo! Inc. made a $436 million unsolicited bid Wednesday for the career Web site HotJobs Inc., challenging an earlier offer from the parent company of Monster.com. Yahoo said it would pay $10.50 for each share of HotJobs stock, a significant premium over the shares’ closing price of $6.47 on Wednesday. Chairman and chief executive Terry Semel said Yahoo was offering HotJobs shareholders a better value, less regulatory risk, and faster execution than TMP Worldwide Inc., Monster.com’s parent company.
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