IN BRIEF

Tropicana negotiates restructuring extension

Tropicana Entertainment has negotiated a deadline extension from Sunday to May 15 to allow the financially troubled gaming company time to work out a restructuring plan with bondholders, a Wednesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows.

The company, a subsidiary of Crestview Hills, Ky.-based Columbia Sussex Corp., agreed to pay $2 million to the trustee of a $960 million bond for expense reimbursement, and another $3 million fee to bondholders by May 1 to extend the deadline to May 15.

Both payments are nonapplicable toward the debt total.

JACKSON, Miss.

Senate rejects measure to outlaw gambling

The Senate has rejected legislation that would ban gaming in some counties.

The chamber's 24-26 vote on the compromise legislation came after more than an hour of debate.

The bill would not have affected counties that already have casinos in operation. It would give a three-year window to other counties that have voted in favor of gaming, but have not yet opened casinos, to file a notice of intent. If not, gaming would never be allowed there.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Dean Kirby, R-Pearl, said the bill would ban gaming in DeSoto County forever because residents don't want it.

Magazine ranks Tao as top-earning restaurant

Tao Las Vegas Restaurant and Nightclub in The Venetian was named the top moneymaking restaurant in the United States for the second time in two years, according to Restaurants & Institutions magazine.

Tao reported food and beverage revenue of $66.6 million in 2007, up from $55.3 million in 2006. SW Steakhouse in Wynn Las Vegas was the only other local restaurant in the top 10.

The magazine estimated SW sales at $20.5 million. New York had the most restaurants in the top 100 with 32. Las Vegas was second at 24. The magazine has ranked nonchain restaurants by revenue for 25 years.

NEW YORK

United Airlines boosts ticket prices again

United Airlines said Wednesday it boosted ticket prices for the second time in a week, adding to its bet that customers will absorb an unrelenting rise in fuel costs.

The move -- which came to light as oil prices topped $115 a barrel for the first time -- could pressure other carriers to follow suit. But it also runs the risk of driving customers away at a time when they are growing fed up with air travel and coping with financial stresses of their own.

"There has to be a price point where the consumer says, 'OK kids, we're staying home,'" said Terry Trippler of tripplertravel.com.

Since the start of the year, airlines have tried to raise ticket prices 12 times across most of their route networks, according to airfare research Web site FareCompare.com. Four of those increases immediately failed to stick after competitors refused to follow, and others at least partially unraveled as carriers jostled to find the right price to lure travelers.

Coca-Cola earnings up 19 percent in quarter

Coca-Cola gave investors Wednesday good news on the profit front, then stood by its support of the Summer Olympics in Beijing as vocal shareholders inside and protesters outside the company's annual meeting questioned the beverage maker's business practices.

The world's biggest beverage company said its profit was $1.5 billion, or 64 cents a share, in the three-month period ended March 28, up from profit of $1.26 billion, or 54 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, Coca-Cola said it earned $1.58 billion, or 67 cents a share, in the quarter.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected earnings of 63 cents a share.

Revenue rose 21 percent to $7.38 billion from $6.10 billion.

NEW YORK

JP Morgan, Wells Fargo report lower earnings

The mortgage meltdown hurt quarterly earnings for both JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo.

JP Morgan, which recently scooped up the toppling investment bank Bear Stearns Cos., said Wednesday that problems with mortgages and other loans cut its own first-quarter profit in half.

The New York-based bank, reported earnings of $2.37 billion, or 68 cents per share, down from $4.79 billion, or $1.34 per share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell 11.1 percent $16.9 billion from $19 billion.

Wells Fargo & Co, meanwhile, said first-quarter profit fell 11 percent as the nation's fifth-largest bank wrestled with rising loan losses and braced for more trouble ahead.

Wells Fargo earned $2 billion, or 60 cents per share, in the quarter ended March 31, down from $2.24 billion, or 66 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose 12 percent to $10.56 billion.

Walgreen accused of hiding business decline

Walgreen Co., the biggest U.S. drug store chain by sales, concealed from its investors a decline in its retail prescription drug business last year while top officers and other insiders sold $6.6 million in stock, according to a lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in Chicago by a plumbers and steamfitters' union pension fund, seeks class action or group status on behalf of all investors who bought the company's stock from June 25 to Nov. 29 plus unspecified money damages.

NEW YORK

Sales of 'The Sims' pass 100 million-unit mark

There are no scary monsters to slay, no enemies to shoot and no cars to hijack. But "The Sims" video and computer game has sold 100 million units since its launch in 2000.

Long the world's top-selling game for computers, "The Sims" is also available on Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 2, the Nintendo Co. Wii and other platforms -- but it remains most popular on PCs.

The 100-million mark, which publisher Electronic Arts announced Wednesday, puts "The Sims" in the ranks of blockbuster franchises such as Nintendo's Mario and Pokémon games, which have sold more than 201 million and 175 million units respectively.

NEW YORK

Treasury prices decline amid earnings news

Treasury prices mostly fell Wednesday after quarterly results from several big companies sparked relief about the state of the economy.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell 0.71 points to 98.5 and yielded 3.68 percent, up from 3.60 percent late Tuesday, according to BGCantor Market Data. Prices and yields tend to move in opposite directions.

The 30-year long bond fell 0.78 points to 98.16 and yielded 4.49 percent, up from 4.45 percent late Tuesday.