Furniture store to close

Danish Inspirations, 722 Mass., will close by the end of October, its manager said Thursday.

Linda Leedy, manager, said the store’s owner, Henrik Svensen, has decided to concentrate on his Overland Park store at 127th Street and Metcalf Avenue.

Attempts to reach Svensen were unsuccessful. Leedy said the store’s lease expires on Oct. 31, but she was uncertain when the store’s last day of operation would be.

The store opened in 1997 in Lawrence. It has one full-time and one part-time employee.

Pat Talbott, a partner with the building’s owner, Jayhawk Equities, said the company is seeking a new tenant for the three-story building, which has 14,800 square feet.

In the above photo, Kansas University students Candice Derks and Josh Wood, both of Olathe, look at sale items in the store on Thursday.

Financial Services: Waddell & Reed to buy Florida investment firm

Overland Park-based Waddell & Reed Financial Inc. announced Thursday it would purchase the U.S. operations of Mackenzie Investment Management Inc. for $74 million.

The Florida-based company’s primary business is to serve as the advisor for the Ivory Funds, a group of mutual funds sold in the United States. The company currently has $2.1 billion in assets under management.

Waddell & Reed, which has an office in Lawrence, said the deal immediately should begin to add to the company’s earnings. The deal is expected to close by year’s end. Waddell & Reed’s stock Thursday closed down 1 cent to $19.24 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Airline: United wants union to take cut in pay

United Airlines said Thursday it was asking its employees to approve cutting its labor costs by $1.5 billion annually during the next six years as part of its restructuring plan.

The labor cutbacks, to include pay reductions and the scrapping of recently negotiated raises, would provide the bulk of the $2.5 billion the struggling carrier has targeted in annual savings in order to ensure its recovery.

The first specifics of United’s plan to transform itself into a smaller, more cost-efficient carrier came at the halfway point of its self-imposed 30-day deadline for reaching agreements with labor and other groups on far-reaching cutbacks.

The unions did not immediately respond to United’s proposals, which were given to them on Wednesday.

Computers: PC makers choose rival of Microsoft

In a rare chink in Microsoft’s dominance of personal computing, the two largest PC makers have opted against bundling the Microsoft Works productivity suite on some models in favor of rival software from Corel Corp.

Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Computer Corp. said this month they would not bundle Works on some models geared toward consumers. Instead, a version of Corel’s WordPerfect Office suite is pre-installed.