Business & Finance
Donald Trump and a group of Hong Kong investors have tentatively agreed to sell a 77-acre parcel of Manhattan riverfront land and three luxury apartment buildings with 1,250 rental units for $1.8 billion. The deal, if completed, would be the biggest residential sale in city history, the Associated Press reported Wednesday. The plan calls for selling the former site of a rail yard known as Riverside South or Trump Place to the Extell Development Corp. and Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, according to news accounts. The property stretches from 59th to 72nd streets on the Upper West Side along the Hudson River.
Italian cable- and tiremaker Pirelli & C SpA said Thursday it has sold its cablemaking unit to Goldman Sachs Capital Partners' buyout fund for $1.83 billion, including the assumption of debt. The unit makes cables used in the transmission of distribution energy and telecommunications signals. Goldman Sachs, which is based in New York, said it supports the unit's current management.
President Bush on Thursday moved to nominate Rep. Christopher Cox (R) of California a conservative veteran of 16 years in Congress, to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission. He would succeed William Donaldson, who announced his resignation on Wednesday. Donaldson, who was installed by Bush to restore confidence in a stock market shaken by corporate scandals, plans to return to the private sector.
EBay Inc. said Wednesday it would acquire comparison- shopping and consumer-review site Shopping.com Inc. for about $620 million. Shopping.com controls Epinions, a site with more than 400,000 amateur product reviews. The acquisition puts EBay sellers in touch with potential new buyers and boosts the number of fixed-price sales listings, a growing online trend. EBay is based in San Jose, Calif; Shopping.com in Brisbane, Calif.
The Toyota Prius, the gas-electric hybrid sedan that has generated waiting lists of environmentally conscious consumers, is the subject of a government investigation into reports the engine can stall while driving at highway speeds. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Wednesday its preliminary investigation will involve about 75,000 of the passenger cars from the 2004-2005 model years.