BRIEFCASE.

Byline: -- Staff and Wire reports

Pixar filings detail options

Pixar Animation Studios granted stock options to key executives four times since 1997 on dates that coincided with the company's lowest stock price, company filings show.

The grants have not been questioned by federal regulators and the company, which was bought by The Walt Disney Co. earlier this year, has not said it is concerned about the accuracy of its financial records.

Pixar spokesman Tom Sarris declined comment Tuesday.

``We do not comment on personnel compensation,'' he said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission also declined comment and would not say whether the agency was examining Pixar's options granting practices.

Cinemark buying Century Theatres

DALLAS -- Plano, Texas-based Cinemark USA Inc. said Tuesday that it is acquiring San Rafael-based Century Theatres Inc. for an undisclosed amount of cash and stock.

The deal, subject to antitrust and financing approval, will create one of the biggest players in the movie exhibition industry.

Cinemark, which was acquired by Chicago private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners LLP in 2004, had $1.02 billion in revenue in 2005. It operates roughly 3,300 screens, making it the third-largest exhibitor in the country, and has a significant presence in Latin America.

Century, which was founded in 1941 in California and has a broad base there, operates more than 1,100 screens in 12 states, according to the company's Web site.

The combined enterprise will have more than 200 million customers in 391 theaters with 4,395 screens in 37 states and 13 countries.

Upon closing of the transaction, Cinemark's stockholders will include founder and chief executive Lee Roy Mitchell, Syufy Enterprises LP, Quadrangle Capital Partners and Madison Dearborn, which will remain the controlling shareholder.

Mitchell will remain chairman and chief executive of the company. Raymond Syufy, chairman of Century Theatres, and Joseph Syufy will join the company's board.

Bristol-Myers suffers stock hit

NEW YORK -- Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. shares plunged nearly 7 percent Tuesday on concerns its earnings and dividend are in serious jeopardy now that a generic version of its best-selling medicine has been launched by Apotex Corp.

Some patients will likely to be able to purchase the generic version of blood thinner Plavix beginning today. Rite Aid Corp. spokeswoman Jody Cook said the company expects to have the drug ``at most, if not all'' its 3,300 stores by then.

Apotex declined to say how much it was charging for its pills. Plavix pills have a wholesale price of $3.89 each.

Apotex's announcement Tuesday that it had begun selling the drug came just hours after Bristol-Myers disclosed it was expecting such a move in an SEC filing.

U.S. productivity slows in spring

WASHINGTON -- The efficiency of American workers slowed sharply in the spring while a key gauge of labor costs rose at the fastest rate since late 2004.

The Labor Department reported that productivity -- the amount of output per hour of work -- slowed to an annual rate of increase of 1.1 percent in the April-June quarter, down from a 4.3 percent rate of increase in the first three months of the year.

Labor costs, as measured by each unit of output, rose at an annual rate of 4.2 percent in the spring, the fastest increase since the final three months of 2004 and up sharply from a 2.5 percent rate of increase in the first three months of this year.

Economists said the slowdown in productivity growth and the acceleration in labor costs was certain to raise concerns at the Federal Reserve about the potential for rising inflation.

Productivity is the key factor determining rising living standards. Strong growth in output allows businesses to pay their workers more without having to raise the cost of their products, which fuels inflation.

Sprint Nextel set for WiMax

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Sprint Nextel Corp., the nation's third-largest cellular provider, said Tuesday it will use an emerging technology called WiMax to build a new high-speed wireless network.

The company said the new network, expected to be available in the fourth quarter of 2007, will provide consumers with wireless Internet speeds on par with DSL and cable TV modems.

Gary Forsee, Sprint's chief executive, said the telecom company will spend $1 billion on the network in 2007 and between $1 billion and $2 billion in 2008.

The initiative was announced less than a week after the company, formed last summer by the merger of Sprint and Nextel Communications, reported a 38 percent drop in second-quarter profit.