IN BRIEF

Hooters Hotel owners enter deal to sell

The ownership group of Hooters Hotel has entered into an definitive purchase agreement to be sell the property for $95 million in cash and additional royalties, and $130 million in public debt, a document filed late Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows.

The group, 155 East Tropicana, signed a letter of intent to sell in January to the investment group led by Santa Monica, Calif.-based NTH Advisory Group following an unsolicited offer.

The agreement provides for closing of the deal as early as Oct. 31. But the closing could come as late as June 2008 pending approval of federal regulators and state gaming officials.

The former San Remo was sold in the summer of 2004 and rechristened as Hooters Hotel on Feb. 2, 2006, following a $130 million renovation.

LONDON

Thomson issues bid to buy out Reuters

Thomson Corp. offered to buy Reuters Group Plc to challenge Bloomberg LP as the world’s largest provider of financial news and information, according to a person with knowledge of the approach.

Reuters is preparing to accept the offer, the Financial Times reported. Reuters earlier Friday that said it received a bid from a company it didn’t identify, sending the stock up a record 25 percent and propelling the London-based company’s market value to 7.75 billion pounds ($15.4 billion).

ROCHESTER, N.Y.

Eastman Kodak posts smaller quarterly loss

Eastman Kodak Co. posted a smaller first-quarter loss Friday — its ninth quarterly deficit in the last 2 1/2 years — as it applies the final cost-cutting touches to a drastic digital makeover. The results still missed Wall Street expectations and its shares dipped nearly 5 percent.

The photography company lost $151 million, or 53 cents a share, in the January-March period versus a loss of $298 million, or $1.04 a share, a year ago when it took hefty charges tied to its massive overhaul.

Sales fell 8 percent to $2.12 billion from $2.89 billion.

SAN FRANCISCO

Wells Fargo will buy Greater Bay Bancorp

Wells Fargo & Co., the nation’s fifth largest bank, Friday said it agreed to buy Greater Bay Bancorp in a stock swap estimated at about $1.5 billion, strengthening its presence around San Francisco Bay.

East Palo Alto-based Greater Bay has $7.4 billion in assets, more than 1,800 employees, and has 41 branches in the San Francisco Bay Area, including Mid-Peninsula Bank, Golden Gate Bank and Santa Clara Valley National Bank.

Greater Bay also owns ABD Insurance and Financial Services, the nation’s 15th largest retail insurance broker, with locations along the West Coast, and Matsco Financial Corp., a national lender specializing in serving veterinarians and dentists.

Wayward rodent causes Strip outage

Three Strip casinos lost power for an hour Friday morning when a rodent contacted electrical equipment at the Highland Substation at 25 S. Highland Drive, Nevada Power Co. reported.

The outage started about

4:40 a.m. and ended about

5:50 a.m., said Sonya Headen, a spokeswoman for Nevada Power.

About 500 customers, many of them businesses, were affected, including the New Frontier, Circus Circus and the Riviera.

"Our crews worked very quick and very safely, and the power was out one hour and 10 minutes," Headen said.

There was one casualty: The rodent did not survive.

NEW YORK

Bond prices decline on manufacturing news

U.S. government bond prices inched down Tuesday as a glowing April manufacturing survey reminded investors yet again that the economy is too strong to warrant a cut in interest rates.

At 5 p.m. EDT, the 10-year Treasury note was down $1.25 per $1,000 in face value, or 0.13 points, from its level at 5 p.m. Monday. Its yield, which moves in the opposite direction, rose to 4.64 percent from 4.62 percent.

The 30-year bond fell 0.03 points. Its yield rose to 4.82 percent from 4.81 percent.