Las Vegas business briefs

COMPUTER CITY CLOSING LV STORE -- Computer City's 25,000-square-foot store at 4731 Faircenter Parkway will close early next month following Tandy Corp.'s sale of the 100-store chain to CompUSA. The 20 employees at the local store will be interviewed for positions at the two CompUSA stores in Southern Nevada, but there has been no indication how many will be rehired. CompUSA, the nation's largest computer-store chain, in July agreed to buy Computer City for $275 million cash in a move that would eliminate CompUSA's closest competitor. When the sale was announced, CompUSA said it would close some of the 256 stores it would own after the acquisition. There are 100 stores with 5,900 employees in the Computer City chain.

LV PLANT FINED FOR AIR POLLUTION, WILL INSTALL BETTER EQUIPMENT -- Wells Cargo Inc. agreed to pay a $61,000 fine and install a smoke recovery system for its three Las Vegas asphalt storage silos. The U.S. Justice Department had accused the company of violating the federal Clean Air Act. The parties reached an agreement in June that was subject to a public comment period. The government filed a motion last week to have the agreement approved by Judge Lloyd George. Attempts to contact Wells Cargo officials for comment failed.

HARRAH'S, RIO REWRITE MERGER TERMS -- Harrah's Entertainment Inc. and Rio Hotel and Casino Inc. have changed the structure of their pending $850 million merger from a pooling of interests between the two companies to an acquisition in which Harrah's will purchase Rio. The change was made after the companies determined a purchase method of accounting would not affect future earnings. Under a purchase method, companies must re-value their assets and liabilities, a process that can result in higher expenses and decreases in future earnings. Under a pooling method, companies combine without re-valuing their assets and liabilities. Pooling can be cheaper, but invites greater regulatory scrutiny. Companies that merge through a pooling face restrictions on activities such as re-purchasing shares. "Purchase accounting will improve the combined company's debt-to-capital ratio as well as permit increased flexibility in managing the combined company," states a joint press release. "The companies continue to expect the transaction to be accretive to earnings in the first year based on achieving modest cost synergies."

SPRINT RESALE DEALS APPROVED -- The Public Utilities Commission of Nevada has approved resale agreements between Sprint of Nevada and two companies to provide local residential and business telephone service. The action authorizes Sprint to sell line access on a wholesale basis to Frontier Telecommunications Inc. and Preferred Carrier Services Inc. Rochester, N.Y.-based Frontier has hired a sales force and will serve areas where Sprint is available. The company also operates local telephone service in 30 other states, a nationwide long-distance service and offers Internet access.

SPRINT RESALE DEALS APPROVED -- A former Rio Rita sued the Rio hotel-casino last week in Clark County District Court, alleging she was fired after pursuing an insurance claim for an injured knee. Carol Rothenhausler was Rio Rita from September 1996 to July 1997, a job that required her to make public appearances in costume on behalf of the hotel-casino. Rothenhausler seeks damages and and an injunction preventing the Rio from using her likeness for commercial use. Attempts to contact Rio officials for comment failed.

LV MAN CHARGED IN STOCK FRAUD -- A Las Vegas stockbroker and six other brokers around the nation were charged with accepting secret, illegal kickbacks to sell obscure stocks to their customers. The Wall Street Journal identified the Las Vegas broker as John Brownson, 40, and said he couldn't be reached for comment. An indictment issued in West Palm Beach, Fla., said the brokers received illegal payments from a stock promoter in Boca Raton, Fla., seeking to create demand for the shares of companies he was backing.

NEVADA POWER MERGER VOTE SET -- Nevada Power Co. and Sierra Pacific Resources said they scheduled special meetings of stockholders to vote on their merger. Sierra Pacific's meeting is Oct. 9 in Reno and Nevada Power's is also Oct. 9 in Las Vegas.

SPRINT TO FIGHT CRAMMING -- Sprint's local telephone division today announced what it calls an "aggressive" new policy to fight illegal "cramming". Cramming is when products or services are added to a customer's telephone bill without permission. Sprint said it will deny or terminate billing arrangements with any company that does not agree to comply with Sprint's anti-cramming policy. Affected companies offer products such as long distance service, voice mail, Internet and paging. Many cramming complaints are associated with sweepstakes entries. A customer believes he or she is simply filling out an entry form for a vacation sweepstakes, but the fine print on the form also gives the company authorization to charge the customer for other -- probably unwanted -- services. Sprint said it will take action against firms engaged in sweepstakes deceptions.

VON'S OWNER IN MERGER SPECULATION -- Wall Street is speculating that Safeway may buy Kroger, according to today's Heard On The Street column in the Wall Street Journal. Such a deal would create a company with 2,760 supermarkets -- creating a chain bigger than the Albertson's-American Stores combination. Safeway owns Von's in Las Vegas, American Stores owns Lucky stores here.

To contact Sun Business Editor Steve Green, call 259-4083 or e-mail [email protected]

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