BRIEFCASE.

Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

Tower Records looks for a buyer

SACRAMENTO - Two years after emerging from bankruptcy protection, Tower Records is reportedly up for sale again.

The West Sacramento-based record-store chain has hired the Los Angeles investment banking firm of Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin to market the company, according to a report in Billboard magazine.

Tower tried selling itself in 2003 and 2004, but was unable to complete a deal.

The new attempt comes as no surprise. It's always been anticipated that Tower's bondholders, who took control of the company during its bankruptcy case, would eventually want to sell out.

Tower and Houlihan Lokey officials couldn't be reached for comment. One of the bondholders, the Los Angeles investment firm MW Post Advisory Group, declined comment. Others couldn't be reached.

Tower, once a stunning success story, got clobbered by discounters, Internet sellers and the digital downloading phenomenon on the Internet.

Aircraft lag skews factory demand

WASHINGTON - Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods fell by the largest amount in 5 1/2 years in January as demand for commercial aircraft suffered the biggest setback in seven years, the government reported Friday.

The Commerce Department said orders for durable goods, everything from computers to cars, fell by 10.2 percent last month, a much bigger decline than had been expected.

The weakness was led by a 68.2 percent drop in orders for commercial aircraft, reflecting a falloff in sales at Boeing Co. after two very strong months. Analysts said the overall decline overstated the weakness in manufacturing because it was so heavily influenced by the volatile aircraft sector.

Excluding airplanes, cars and other transportation products, orders posted a solid 0.6 percent rise after an even larger 1.9 percent increase in December.

Generic Flonase shipment blocked

WASHINGTON - GlaxoSmithKline said Friday that it had obtained a temporary restraining order blocking the shipment and sales of a recently FDA-approved generic competitor to its Flonase nasal spray for allergies.

A federal judge in Baltimore granted the 10-day order late Thursday, GlaxoSmithKline spokeswoman Mary Anne Rhyne said.

The order applies to both Roxane Laboratories Inc.'s Fluticasone Propionate Nasal Spray, which the Food and Drug Administration approved Wednesday, and Par Pharmaceutical Cos. Inc.'s own generic version of Flonase, which GlaxoSmithKline authorized. Pharmaceutical companies often license generic versions of their own drugs to undercut generic competitors just as they come onto the market with their own versions of a drug.

Par said in a statement that it would comply with the order. Roxane Laboratories did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

United attendants OK pension plan

CHICAGO - United Airlines' flight attendants have overwhelmingly ratified an agreement for a defined-contribution retirement plan, their union said Friday in an announcement signaling the end of the union's rancorous battle against the company over pensions.

The union said more than 79 percent of flight attendants who cast ballots voted to approve the new pension plan, which replaces defined-benefit pensions terminated by the airline as part of its three-year bankruptcy restructuring.

The new plan, which is retroactive to Jan. 1, includes company direct and matching contributions beginning at 5 percent and escalating to 6 percent of a flight attendant's earnings within two years.

The Association of Flight Attendants agreed last month to drop its legal action over the pension terminations as part of a tentative settlement reached just before United came out of bankruptcy.