BUSINESS NOTES SYNCOR TO ACQUIRE RADIATION FIRMS.

Byline: - From staff and wire reports

WOODLAND HILLS - Syncor International Corp. said Tuesday it plans to buy Inovision Measurements LLC and its Victoreen LLC unit by the end of this month.

Both companies make radiation measurement equipment and related accessories used in medical diagnostic imaging and radiation therapy. Syncor expects the acquisition to be immediately accretive to earnings.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Man, SEC settle over Emulex hoax 

The Securities and Exchange Commission has settled its lawsuit against Mark Jakob, the man accused of manipulating the stock price of the Emulex Corp. last August by issuing a phony press release.

According to the agreement, Jakob will turn over the $241,000 he made trading Emulex stock, plus $97,000, plus interest, which represents the potential trading losses he hoped to avoid by sending the company's stock price tumbling, the SEC said Tuesday.

Jakob will also pay a penalty of $102,642. The total represents the amount of money frozen by the government after Jakob's arrest in August 2000. That money will be held by the court and paid to defrauded investors who have filed a class action suit in New York state. The SEC believes Jakob's actions defrauded investors out of $110 million.

Jakob sold 3,000 shares of Emulex stock short. A short sale involves selling borrowed shares of a stock in anticipation that the price will decline. But instead the shares rose in value.

A few days later, facing a potential loss of $97,000, Jakob crafted a phony press release stating that the chief executive of Emulex Corp. had quit and the company was restating its quarterly earnings from a profit to a loss.

Jakob was able to send the release through Internet Wire, a Los Angeles company that distributes corporate announcements to news organizations and on its Web site. Jakob had worked for Internet Wire for more than a year and had left on good terms the previous week.

Within minutes of the release becoming public, Emulex's share price plunged until trading was halted on the Nasdaq. Jakob covered his short position and bought additional shares, which he later sold at a profit. Emulex's stock recovered most of its value by the end of the day.

Amazon shares, earnings fall short

SEATTLE - Shares of Amazon.com Inc. plunged more than 20 percent Tuesday after the company cautioned that it would see lower-than-expected revenue in the coming months.

Amazon's revenue outlook came as the company reported second-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street's expectations, and also announced a deal with AOL Time Warner to help it build a Web site for America Online's 30 million users.

Amazon said Monday that it expects net sales for the third quarter to be $625 million to $675 million, a drop from analysts' expectations of $700 million to $725 million.

Lucent to slash 20,000 positions

NEW YORK - Lucent Technologies Inc., the AT&T spinoff that once looked so promising, posted a hefty $3.25 billion third-quarter loss Tuesday and announced plans to eliminate 15,000 to 20,000 more jobs.

The Murray Hill, N.J.-based company also said it was eliminating its 2-cent quarterly dividend beginning Sept. 1 _ a move the company said would free up $68 million per quarter _ and unveiled an agreement to sell its fiber-optics operations for $2.75 billion.

Chairman and chief executive Henry Schacht said the aggressive cost-cutting efforts should return the company to profitability by next year.