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Mera snags Albertson's deal
Mera Pharmaceuticals Inc., which produces the nutritional product AstaFactor from microalgae, said today it has reached a marketing agreement with grocery store giant Albertson's Inc.Richard Propper, chief executive officer of Mera, said he also expects the company to break even by the end of this year and to achieve profitability in 2004 due to the company's growing revenue base and cost reductions.
The company, formerly known as Aquasearch Inc., has never made a profit and as of its fiscal first quarter ending Jan. 31, 2003, had lost nearly $23.8 million since its 1988 inception. Mera's revenues fell 29.3 percent to $182,182 last quarter.
Albertson's, the nation's second-largest grocery chain, will carry AstaFactor in approximately 1,200 of the chain's Sav-On and Osco drugstores.
Mera's initial order has been shipped and the product will be on the shelves in mid-April.
Mera has a plant in Kona with another plant currently under construction in China. Mera's administrative offices are in Solona Beach, Calif., near San Diego.
Net not a great chance for a job
Unemployed workers might want to think twice about depending on the Internet alone for a job search. Such hunting could prolong your unemployment.Since March 2001, the start of the current recession, the average unemployment period has grown to more than 15 weeks. That's three weeks longer than it took job seekers to get a job during the previous downturn in 1990-91, according to an analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, conducted by the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.
Too many people are dropping resumes at an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 online job sites, blanketing the land with resumes that will not generate a phone call for the job seeker, said John Challenger, the firm's chief executive.
HealthSouth fires Scrushy, accountants
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. >> HealthSouth Corp. dismissed Richard Scrushy as chairman and chief executive today, severing ties with the company's founder as a third executive agreed to plead guilty in a mushrooming accounting scandal.In a further bid to wipe clean its slate, HealthSouth said it would fire longtime outside auditor Ernst & Young.
The New York-based auditing firm has said it is cooperating in a federal investigation of the company, which allegedly created false financial statements and entries to deceive auditors.
Also today, federal prosecutors said Emery Harris, 33, vice president of finance and assistant controller of HealthSouth, agreed to plead guilty to charges including conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud and falsifying financial information in annual statements.
US Airways leaves Chapter 11 bankruptcy
WASHINGTON >> US Airways Group Inc., emerged from bankruptcy today, and has closed its deal for a $900 million government loan guarantee, the Treasury Department said.The assistance will underpin $1 billion in private financing and is the largest granted to an airline since the program was established to help carriers struggling with losses after 9/11.
US Airways is using the loan guarantee as a cornerstone of restructuring, coupling it with big cash investments from Retirement Systems of Alabama and GE Capital, the financing arm of General Electric Co.
The government will assume a 10 percent stake in the airline in exchange for the loan guarantee.
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