Honeywell to expand Korean factory
Honeywell announced plans to expand its Korean factory where workers will make many of the same products currently produced at its large manufacturing plant in Spokane Valley.
The company said the expansion should be completed this autumn. A Honeywell press release said the project will provide its growing Asian/Pacific customer base with a local supply of materials needed to make semiconductors.
At the Spokane Valley plant, about 500 employees are involved in the making of “sputtering targets,” which are used to create the thin metal layers used on semiconductor chips.
Last year the company opened a new research and development office in China to support its Electronic Materials Division, which encompasses the Spokane Valley operation.
Quattrone lawyer asks judge to drop conviction
New York A lawyer for former star investment banker Frank Quattrone asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to toss out his conviction, citing unfair and confusing instructions given to the jury.
Quattrone, one of the biggest Wall Street names of the dot-com boom, was found guilty last year of obstructing a federal stock investigation by endorsing an e-mail to his colleagues encouraging them to destroy files.
His lawyer, Mark Pomerantz, told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that trial judge Richard Owen gave unfairly broad instructions to the jury.
For example, the judge told jurors they needed to find that Quattrone directed workers to destroy files that were called for in a federal grand jury subpoena issued to his bank, Credit Suisse First Boston.
Chinese oil company launches ad campaign
With a hearing in Congress today to discuss the national security implications of a Chinese oil company’s bid for Unocal Corp., Hong Kong-based Cnooc Ltd. is rolling out an advertising campaign aimed at abating the fears of Washington insiders.
The print ads, which will appear in publications such as Congressional Quarterly, National Journal and Roll Call, among others, stress what Cnooc believes are “the facts” behind its $18.5 billion cash offer for Unocal, which already has a tentative agreement to be bought for $16 billion-plus by Chevron Corp.
In one ad, snippets from various newspaper articles and editorials are used to back up Cnooc’s claims that its proposed takeover of Unocal does not pose threats to America’s energy or national security.
The House Armed Services Committee plans a hearing today on the proposed transaction.