TUCSON
● Home Depot will hold a two-day auction of more than $2 million in new inventory and store fixtures, office furniture, equipment and displays from the recently closed store at 4755 N. Oracle Road. Grafe Auction Co. will conduct the auction. The auction starts at 9 a.m. Friday and Saturday, with a formal preview and advance registration today from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. For more information, visit ww.gabid.com or call 1-800-328-5920.
● Phoenix-based Phelps Dodge Corp. announced a 2-for-1 split of the company's common stock effective Feb. 17 and declared a special dividend of $4 per common share and a regular dividend of 37.5 cents per share. The dividend is payable March 3 to shareholders of record on Feb. 14. The company also reported net income of $121.3 million or $1.19 per share, for the 2005 fourth quarter and $1.56 billion, or $15.37 per share, for the fiscal year. Phelps Dodge's board also gave conditional approval to develop a new copper mine in Safford, with final approval contingent on receiving state permits.
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● The latest version of Raytheon Co.'s Maverick air-to-ground missile performed as designed in a series of recent flight tests conducted at Florida's Eglin Air Force Base, the company said. The Maverick Lock-On-After-Launch (LOAL) program expands the missile's use against stationary and moving targets and adds a global positioning system, inertial navigation system and a network data link. Work on the LOAL's evaluation is being performed at Tucson's Raytheon Missile Systems.
NATION
● The Bush administration, faced with the need to finance a rising federal budget deficit, announced Wednesday it will bring back the 30-year bond next week. The initial sale of $14 billion of the securities, on Feb. 9, will mark the first time the government has sold the long-term bonds in five years.
● The parent company of Burger King said Wednesday that it plans to sell shares to the public for the first time in the fast-food chain's 52-year history as it tries to more effectively compete with McDonald's and Wendy's. Miami-based Burger King Holdings Inc. declined further comment beyond saying its initial public offering will be filed in late February or early March.
● Google Inc.'s market value dropped by more than $9 billion Wednesday as investors bailed out of the Internet's leading search engine after an earnings letdown. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company's stock price plunged by as much as 10 percent before rebounding slightly as Wall Street digested a series of analyst reports that continued to predict a bright future for Google. The shares closed on the Nasdaq Stock Market at $401.78, a decline of $30.88, or 7.1 percent.
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