Posted on: Tuesday, June 4, 2002

Business briefs

Brenneman lands CEO job

Greg Brenneman, who unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate a merger of Aloha and Hawaiian Airlines earlier this year, has been named president and chief executive of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP's consulting unit, replacing Tom O'Neill.

O'Neill, 57, becomes chairman of PwC Consulting, handling the separation of the consulting business from its accounting firm parent, PricewaterhouseCoopers, the company said in a statement.

Brenneman, 40, will report to Samuel DiPiazza, the accounting firm's chairman, until PwC Consulting, which provides management and technology advice, is separate. After that, Brenneman will report to PwC's board.

USA Interactive to buy shares

USA Interactive announced a multibillion dollar plan today to increase its equity ownership in three publicly traded subsidiaries, Expedia Inc., Hotels.com and Ticketmaster, by purchasing their shares with as much as $4.5 billion worth of its own stock.

Stockholders of the online travel and entertainment ticket selling units will be offered an exchange of their shares for USA shares according to conversion ratios that, in each case, reflect a premium of 7.5 percent over Friday's closing price.

The announcement sent shares of Expedia, Ticketmaster and Hotels.com higher, while USA Interactive's stock price fell by nearly 8 percent to $26.23 in midday trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Official at energy firm found dead

El Paso Corp. senior vice president and treasurer Charles Dana Rice was found dead yesterday of an apparent suicide, company officials said.

Rice's death comes amid turmoil in the energy sector over alleged bogus trades and accounting. Federal regulators are investigating simultaneous power swaps between energy traders that artificially boosted trading volume.

Last week, El Paso announced it would sharply reduce its energy trading activities and focus on its core natural gas businesses.

— Staff and news services