Sunflower signs deal for digital recording

Lawrence-based Sunflower Broadband has signed a deal to begin offering its cable customers the latest in digital recording devices.

Sunflower officials on Monday announced they had reached a deal with Kirkland, Wash.-based Digeo Inc. that will allow Sunflower to begin offering the Motorola Broadband Media Center to customers.

The media center will allow people to digitally record up to 60 hours of traditional television programming or up to 11 hours of high-definition programming, said Emily Mulligan, marketing manager for Sunflower Broadband.

Mulligan said the device offered many features, including one that allowed users to set recordings up to two weeks in advance. The media center also will allow users to record only new shows, while skipping reruns.

Sunflower expects to begin offering the media center sometime after the first of the year. Prices for the boxes have not been set. Sunflower is owned by The World Company, which also owns the Journal-World.

Media

Cox Enterprises to buy back cable firm’s shares

Cox Enterprises Inc. announced a $7.9 billion proposal Monday to buy the public shares of Cox Communications Inc. and take the nation’s fourth largest cable TV provider private.

Cox Enterprises, a private company that owns newspapers and telecommunications services, already owns 62 percent of Atlanta-based Cox Communications.

Under the deal, Cox Enterprises would purchase the remaining 38 percent and make Cox Communications a subsidiary. Under the proposal, Cox Enterprises would pay $32 a share to take control of the cable provider — 16 percent higher than the $27.58 at which Cox Communications’ stock closed on Friday. News of the deal sent Cox’s shares soaring Monday. They closed at $33.16.

Lawsuit

Kodak faces allegations of racial discrimination

A lawsuit claims Eastman Kodak Co. — lauded as a top company for minorities — unfairly distributed raises to women and black workers and required them to waive their right to sue as a condition of receiving pay raises and promotions.

According to the federal discrimination lawsuit filed Friday, Rochester, N.Y.-based Eastman Kodak was more concerned about protecting itself from employee lawsuits than helping about 2,000 workers when it handed out about $13 million in raises to blacks and women in 1999.

Executives received the pay increases after an internal study found blacks and women had been underpaid for years. But the lawsuit claims that the way Kodak went about giving the money reflected a pattern of bias and inequality toward blacks.

Eastman Kodak officials declined to comment directly on the lawsuit but said the company was committed to fairness.

Earnings

Procter & Gamble profits rise in fourth quarter

Procter & Gamble Co. reported Monday that its earnings soared 44 percent in its fourth fiscal quarter with growth in its beauty and health care businesses pushing its full-year sales past $50 billion for the first time.

The huge consumer products company said it earned $1.37 billion, or 50 cents per share, up from $955 million, or 34 cents per share in the same period a year ago.