Posted on: Wednesday, November 10, 2004

BUSINESS BRIEFS
C.S. Wo redoing Salt Lake store

Furniture retailer C.S. Wo will close its Salt Lake Furnitureland store in mid-December to make way for a new home furnishings store to open in the same space in early 2005.

The 18,000-square-foot Furnitureland store, across from the former Costco site in the Bougainville Industrial Park, is next to C.S. Wo's Sleepland and DeZign Home stores. C.S. Wo is working on concept details for the new store, the name of which it is keeping under wraps.

State names securities official

The state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs has named Corinna Wong as its new commissioner of securities.

Wong will oversee compliance of state securities laws and be in charge of the business registration division. She replaces Ryan Ushijima, who resigned to work for First Hawaiian Bank as chief operating officer and chief compliance officer. Wong had served as a senior policy analyst for Gov. Linda Lingle, and was a partner at Baker and McKenzie in Palo Alto, Calif., specializing in corporate and securities law.

Microsoft preps $32B payout

BELLEVUE, Wash. — Microsoft Corp. shareholders approved changes to the company's stock compensation plans, clearing the way for the software giant to award a one-time, $3-per-share dividend that will cost the company $32 billion.

The dividend is part of Microsoft's plan to give a big chunk of its $64 billion cash holdings back to investors.

Northrop joins Boeing for bid

LOS ANGELES — Northrop Grumman Corp. and Boeing Co. said they will bid as a team to compete for NASA's planned manned and robotic space exploration program.

The two companies will start with a bid for the crew exploration vehicle, the first phase of "Project Constellation," which is designed to explore the moon and travel to Mars.