Business briefs 11/16/06

US Airways makes hostile takeover bid

ATLANTA -- US Airways made a hostile $8 billion bid for Delta Air Lines on Wednesday, despite Delta's repeated statements it isn't interested in a merger. The move could start a stampede of competing bids in a long-predicted industry consolidation. The offer, however, faces many obstacles, and analysts questioned whether the deal to create what could be the nation's largest carrier can be completed on US Airways' timeline. Delta, which said it would review the proposal but was pushing ahead with its goal to emerge from bankruptcy as a standalone company, has yet to file its own plan of reorganization, and it has the exclusive right to do so by Feb. 15. The offer comes as US Airways and America West are still integrating their operations after their combination last year.

HP exec pleads not guilty in spying case

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Patricia Dunn, the Hewlett-Packard Co. chairwoman forced out over the company's ill-fated spying probe into boardroom leaks, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to four felony identity theft and fraud charges. Dunn appeared briefly for her arraignment in Santa Clara County Superior Court and was released on her own recognizance after her lawyer entered the plea for her. She and her attorney, Raj Chatterjee, declined to comment as they left court. Dunn, 53, is one of five people charged in the computer and printer maker's clandestine efforts to unmask board members who discussed company business with reporters. Investigators used a shady ruse known as "pretexting," which involved pretending to be someone else to obtain personal calling records.

Top Enron executive gets prison term

HOUSTON -- Richard Causey, the last of the top Enron Corp. executives to learn his punishment, was sentenced Wednesday to five and a half years in prison for his role in one of the biggest corporate scandals in U.S. history. Causey, the energy trading company's former chief accounting officer, pleaded guilty in December to securities fraud two weeks before he was to be tried along with Enron founder Kenneth Lay and former chief executive Jeffrey Skilling on conspiracy, fraud and other charges. After Causey, 46, serves his five years, six months in prison, he will have to serve two years' probation and pay a $25,000 fine that will be distributed to Enron's victims. Causey had already agreed to pay $1.25 million to the victims' funds.

Merck cleared in death of man taking Vioxx

NEW ORLEANS -- A federal jury Wednesday cleared Merck & Co. in the July 2003 heart attack suffered by a Utah bank credit manager who had taken the once-popular painkiller Vioxx for 10 1/2 months. Charles Laron "Ron" Mason, 64, of Salt Lake County, Utah, began taking Vioxx after years of taking anti-inflammatory drugs because of back pain. The case was the 11th to be tried and the fourth in federal court. Merck won two previous federal cases and lost the third. In state court, it has won three, and lost three. Jurors decided a fourth in Merck's favor, but the judge later ordered a retrial. Mason had no comment after the verdict was announced.

-- From wire reports