BRIEFCASE.

Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

SBC Tower sold to LBA Realty arm

Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds and New Pacific Realty said Monday that it has sold the downtown SBC Tower, formerly known as the Transamerica Center,

The purchaser was an affiliate of LBA Realty, a real estate investment and management company based in Irvine. Terms were not disclosed.

Beverly Hills-based New Pacific Realty and Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds had owned the property since May 2003.

Completed in 1965 and extensively renovated in 1995, the 935,000- square-foot complex includes a 32-story office tower, an 11-story office building and two adjacent parking structures.

SBC Services will occupy 10 floors of the tower, which is also home to Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance Co.

Adobe to acquire Macromedia Inc.

SAN JOSE - Combining two of the largest makers of software for creating and delivering digital content, Adobe Systems Inc. said Monday that it will acquire Macromedia Inc. in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $3.4 billion.

Both companies said the long-rumored acquisition was not to consolidate and cut costs but to help Adobe expand into new markets, particularly in the area of providing content to mobile phones and other handheld devices.

Treasury bill rates mixed at auction

WASHINGTON - Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills were mixed in Monday's auction with three-month bills edging up to the highest level in 3 1/2 years while rates on six-month bills declined.

The Treasury Department auctioned $16 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 2.805 percent, up from 2.710 percent last week. An additional $14 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 3.040 percent, down from 3.065 percent last week.

The three-month rate was the highest since an average of 3.180 percent Sept. 10, 2001, while the six-month bill was the lowest since 3.035 percent April 4.

In a separate report, the Federal Reserve said Monday that the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable-rate mortgages, edged down to 3.32 percent last week from 3.33 percent the previous week.

Bank of America's income up sharply

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Bank of America Corp.'s first-quarter earnings rose sharply from a year ago as the nation's No. 3 bank benefited from its acquisition of FleetBoston as well as strong commercial loan growth and deposit growth.

Bank of America said Monday that its net income rose to $4.70 billion, or $1.14 per share, for the January-March period, from $2.68 billion, or 91 cents per share, a year earlier. Last year's results did not include the impact of Bank of America's merger with FleetBoston Financial Corp., which was completed April 1, 2004.

This year's first-quarter results include merger and restructuring costs of 2 cents per share. Revenue on a fully taxable-equivalent basis grew to $14.22 billion, up sharply from $9.70 billion the previous year.

Eli Lilly profits up despite drug slide

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Eli Lilly & Co. on Monday said its profits climbed during the first quarter despite eroding sales of its anti-psychosis drug Zyprexa and attention deficit disorder treatment Strattera, which has a new warning about side effects.

Lilly also said second-quarter earnings would fall short of current Wall Street estimates, but it expected to meet investors' expectations for the full year.

Lilly earned $736.6 million, or 68 cents per share, in the January-March period, up from $400.4 million, or 37 cents per share, during the same period a year ago. The 2004 figures reflected one-time research and development costs of $362.3 million. Excluding that expense, and assuming the expensing of stock options, net income for the year-ago period was $671.4 million, or 62 cents per share.

Feds' Coca-Cola probes at an end

ATLANTA - The Justice Department has abruptly ended, without taking action, its nearly 2-year-old criminal investigation of allegations raised in a whistle-blower lawsuit of accounting irregularities at The Coca-Cola Co., the world's biggest soft-drink maker said Monday.

Separately, the Atlanta-based company said it has reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over its business practices in Japan.

The end to the dual investigations closes an embarrassing chapter for the company that was sparked by a 2003 lawsuit filed by former Coke manager Matthew Whitley, who claimed he was fired in retaliation for reporting to senior management allegations of fraud and accounting mistakes.

It was not clear why the Justice Department dropped its investigation, which included grand jury testimony from several current and former Coke executives. Patrick Crosby, a spokesman for the Atlanta U.S. Attorney's Office, declined to comment.