Neverland Entertainment investing in production firm

Michael Jackson’s Neverland Entertainment is putting as much as $20 million into a Montreal company that will operate a new movie-production division called Neverland Pictures.

Mark Damon, chief executive of MDP Worldwide Entertainment Inc., said the deal announced this week would allow MDP to produce major films with Jackson’s involvement.

Jackson, who will become a major shareholder in MDP, has appeared in films including “The Wiz” and also intends to co-direct a film with Canadian filmmaker Bryan Michael Stoller.

Heinz: Ketchup maker squirts mystery into promotion

Apparently committed to more colorful meals, the folks who brought you purple and green ketchup are ready with three more colors: pink, orange and teal.

H.J. Heinz Co. in late April will roll out a limited supply of one million EZ Squirt bottles, each camouflaging one of three new colors of ketchup inside.

Buyers won’t know, until they squirt it on a burger or fries, which color they have. Customer reaction will help decide which of the three becomes the company’s new permanent hue and is added to the current palette of red, green and purple.

Aircraft manufacturer: Boeing to use Wichita plant for tanker conversion

Boeing Co. announced Wednesday that it would use its plant and work force in Wichita for the tanker conversion of the Boeing 767 a move that could mean hundreds of new jobs at the beleaguered aircraft manufacturer.

“The news can’t be looked at as anything but positive,” said Dick Ziegler, spokesman for Boeing-Wichita.

But the company hedged its tanker announcement by adding that the tanker modification project was contingent on the U.S. Air Force choosing Boeing for the contract.

Last year, Congress granted the Air Force authority to negotiate a lease for up to 100 tankers as the first step in replacing its aging KC-135 tanker lease.

Boeing did not release any specific job numbers in connection with the project.

Boeing’s Wichita Development and Modification Center, where the tanker work would be done, now employs about 2,000 workers.

Pharmaceutical: Hint of FDA action causes ImClone shares to soar

Shares of ImClone Systems Inc. surged Wednesday after the company said the Food and Drug Administration may allow it to use data from a European trial to support efforts to gain approval of its star drug.

But the future of Erbitux, a highly touted cancer treatment, remains far from certain.

ImClone shares catapulted 32 percent, or $5.01 a share, to $20.53 after the company said the FDA told it Tuesday that it would consider accepting Erbitux data from an ongoing trial by Germany’s Merck KGaA, which owns the drug’s European rights.

LTV bankruptcy: Investment firm reports deal to restart steel mills

A New York investment firm announced Wednesday that it had reached a deal to buy and restart several steel mills owned by bankrupt LTV Corp., once the nation’s third-largest integrated steel company.

The proposal by WL Ross & Co. LLC to buy LTV’s integrated steel assets still must be approved by a bankruptcy court judge.

The announcement came about two hours before the start of a private bid process for potential buyers of Cleveland-based LTV, which sought bankruptcy protection in December 2000.