Business news with words agreement+close+deal. 36 news.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Progress Energy said it's reached an agreement to sell Powell Mountain Coal Co., Dulcimer Land Co. and Kanawha River Terminals, a transaction that would mark the final deal in its program of divesting non-regulated assets. The deal with an investor group made up of Pegasus Capital Advisors, Kelso & Co., Resource Capital Funds and an affiliate of Traxys North America will bring in $94 million, Raleigh, N.C.-based Progress Energy said. The transactions are expected to close in January, with Progress Energy earmarking proceeds for general corporate purposes.

General Motors Corporation and International Truck and Engine Corporation, the principal operating subsidiary of Navistar International Corporation , have entered into a non-binding deal in which Navistar would purchase certain assets and rights for GM's medium-duty truck business, the two companies said Thursday. Navistar would acquire GM's medium-duty truck business, including assets and intellectual property rights to manufacture some GMC and Chevrolet brand vehicles and the purchase of the related service parts business. The deal is expected to close in 2008 subject to completion of due diligence, the negotiation of a definitive purchase agreement, customary regulatory clearance and board approval, the companies said. Upon closing, transition of the business could take several months to conclude, they said.

H&R Block Inc. said Tuesday that a deal to sell its troubled mortgage lending arm has fallen through, forcing it to scrap most of the $1 billion business. The Kansas City-based tax preparer and Cerberus Capital Management LP said they have terminated their agreement, announced in April, for a Cerberus subsidiary to buy Option One Mortgage Corp. H&R Block is accepting no new mortgage applications and will lay off about 620 employees, close three offices and take a $75 million restructuring charge as it shuts down operations, the company said. The company said it will honor $30 million worth of existing commitments. Most of these will be eligible for sale to government subsidized Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, H&R Block said, with the rest sold to investors. H&R Block also said it will sell its servicing business, which will result in another asset impairment charge for the quarter ended Oct. 31 of no more than $125 million. The company hired Lazard to handle that sale and said it was determining the unit's value.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Clear Channel Communications Inc. doesn't expect the buyout of the company by an affiliate of a private equity group, led by Bain Capital Partners LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP, to close by the end of the year. Clear Channel said it intends to extend the termination date of the agreement to June 12. The San Antonio media company is "actively" pursuing the satisfaction of the conditions to closing the deal. The remaining material conditions to be satisfied are obtaining requisite Federal Communications Commission consent and the expiration or termination of the waiting period under the Hart Scott Rodino Act. Clear Channel said it is "confident" the conditions will be met. The company expects the deal to close during the first quarter of 2008. Clear Channel also declared a quarterly cash dividend of 19 cents a share on its common stock, payable Jan. 15 to shareholders of record Dec. 31.

Cerberus Capital Management and H&R Block said Tuesday they terminated their agreement for Cerberus to purchase H&R Block’s mortgage subsidiary, which has now stopped accepting new mortgage applications. H&R Block said it will lay off about 620 employees, close three offices and take a $75 million restructuring charge as it shuts down lending at Option One [...]

BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- H&R Block Inc. said Tuesday it has agreed to terminate a previous agreement under which Cerberus Capital Management would have acquired its Option One Mortgage Corp. unit. The tax-services provider said it will close all remaining origination activities of Option One and has stopped accepting new loan applications. H&R Block said the move will result in 620 staff cuts, the closure of three offices and a pretax restructuring charge of about $75 million. The company said it continues to pursue the sale of its loan-servicing activities.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- International Speedway Corp. said late Friday that Prologis terminated its agreement to buy the company's Staten Island, N.Y., property effective Nov. 27. The Daytona Beach, Fla., motorsports activities promoter said Prologis, a real estate investment trust, terminated the agreement before the expiration of the due diligence inspection period. Prologis agreed to buy the 676-acre property on Oct. 19, and the deal was expected to close in December.

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- Cerberus, the New York private-equity firm, late on Wednesday said it asked a New York State Supreme Court, a trial court, for a judgment against United Rentals Inc. Cerberus claims that it is not obligated to complete its acquisition of the Greenwich, Conn., equipment-rental company and that under their agreement, URI is entitled only to damages. On Monday, URI said that it sued Cerberus in the Delaware Court of Chancery to compel the investment firm to close the acquisition. Cerberus had agreed to pay $34.50 a share, or $7 billion, for United Rentals. Cerberus said on Wednesday that its agreement with URI includes a liability cap of $100 million if the deal did not go through. United Rentals has said that Cerberus's effort to end the deal is a ploy to lower the deal price.

Providence Equity Partners Inc. may back out of a $1.2 billion agreement to acquire Clear Channel Communications' 56 television stations. Providence is the financial backer for Newport Television, a company formed by former Wichita television executive Sandy DiPasquale. Newport is operating out of Wichita offices pending its planned December move to Kansas City. DiPasquale is recuperating from an illness and could not be reached for comment Tuesday. His son, Michael, didn't return calls to the Wichita office. Other company officials declined comment. Providence may not close the deal on the terms agreed upon in April, San Antonio-based Clear Channel said Nov. 9 in a regulatory filing. The sale outcome doesn't threaten Clear Channel's pending $19.5 billion takeover by Thomas H. Lee Partners Inc. and Bain Capital LLC, the company said.

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. expects to close its acquisition of Pathmark Stores Inc. in early December. Supermarket chain A&P said Monday that it provided last week the required two-week notice to the Federal Trade Commission of its intention to close the acquisition of Pathmark. The notice stated that A&P may close the purchase anytime after Nov. 27. A&P also said that it signed an agreement with the staff of the FTC regarding required divestitures, and has entered into definitive asset purchase agreements with specific buyers for certain stores.

ADELAIDE, Australia News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch said Tuesday he intends to make access to The Wall Street Journal's Web site free, trading subscription fees for anticipated ad revenue. "We expect to make that free, and instead of having one million (subscribers), having at least 10 million-15 million in every corner of the earth," Murdoch said. News Corp. has signed an agreement to acquire Dow Jones & Co., and the deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter. A special shareholders meeting is scheduled for Dec. 13 in New York. Murdoch said he believes that a free model, with

THE United Auto Workers union has reached a tentative contract agreement with Ford Motor Co, the last of the big three US car makers participating in a historic round of negotiations that has slashed wages and changed the way health care is provided to retirees. Ford said the deal, if approved by a majority of the 54,000 workers represented, will make it more competitive as it tries to halt its sliding US market share. Tentative agreement on Ford's four-year contract was reached about 3:20am on Saturday without a strike. The UAW held short strikes against General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC before reaching agreements with those automakers. Details were not immediately released but a person briefed on the deal said Ford scaled back plans to close some US plants and has promised to make significant product investments to ensure those plants will remain open for now. In exchange, Ford will be allowed to pay lower wages to thousands of new hires, a provision already agreed to in

DETROIT–A marathon bargaining session between Ford Motor Co. and the United Auto Workers has brought both sides close to a tentative contract agreement, but a deal has yet to be reached, according to two people who have been briefed on the talks.

A marathon bargaining session between Ford Motor Co. and the United Auto Workers has brought both sides close to a tentative contract agreement, but a deal has yet to be reached, according to two people who have been briefed on the talks.

The deal must be ratified by the UAW's approximately 60,000 members at Ford. If approved, it would bring a close to historic negotiations that have yielded agreements designed to return U.S.-based automakers to profitability.

The United Auto Workers union is so close to approving a landmark four-year contract with Chrysler LLC that even some of the people who were against the deal said yesterday they see only a remote chance the agreement could still be voted down.

Pakistan and Iran are close to finalising a gas purchase agreement for the $7.4 billion (About Rs 29,200 crore) IPI pipeline during technical talks in Islamabad, even as officials said India's decision not to take part in the talks did not mean it had pulled out of the trilateral project.

Sanyo is close to an agreement to sell its lossmaking mobile phone business to Kyocera, in a move that would create the world's seventh-biggest handset maker

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Textron Inc. would receive $33 million from United Industrial Corp. if their merger agreement were terminated under certain circumstances, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Tuesday. On Monday defense-contractor Textron said it would buy UIC for $81 a share, a 7% premium to its prior-day closing price. UIC, through its subsidiary AAI Corp., designs, builds and supports aerospace defense systems including unmanned aircraft. Textron closed Monday at $64.01, down 2%, while UIC jumped 6.3% to close at $80.39.

Bank of the West is selling a piece of its business that was created decades ago by a Wichita-based thrift. The San Francisco-based bank entered into an agreement to sell its bank agent network in Kansas -- which has about $8 million in loans and $103 million in deposits -- to Brooke Savings Bank, a subsidiary of Overland Park-based Brooke Corp. The value of the deal is estimated between $2.7 million and $3.3 million. It is expected to close sometime in the next three months, pending regulatory approval. The loans and deposits come from the network of 45 Kansas bank agents who referred deposit and loan business to Bank of the West. John Stafford, a spokesman for Bank of the West, said Friday that the network was part of his bank's 2005 acquisition of Commercial Federal Bank.