Icahn ends takeover battle for PC maker Dell

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is giving up his bitter takeover fight for Dell Inc. a few days before shareholders are scheduled to consider the latest buyout offer from the struggling computer maker's founder Michael Dell.

Icahn said Monday in a letter to shareholders that he still thinks Michael Dell's bid to take his company private undervalues the business and freezes shareholders out of any future gains. But Icahn also said it would be "almost impossible" to defeat that offer in a vote scheduled for Thursday.

Icahn and another major Dell shareholder, Southeastern Asset Management, said they won't pursue additional efforts to defeat it.

"We therefore congratulate Michael Dell and I intend to call him to wish him good luck (he may need it)," Icahn wrote in the letter.

Michael Dell's $24.8 billion bid to take his company private includes an offer of $13.75 per share plus a 13-cent dividend. Dell raised that bid last month after previous offers also drew strong criticism from Icahn and other major Dell Inc. investors.

Dell's shares have plunged by more than 40 percent since Michael Dell returned for a second stint as CEO in 2007, largely because the company has had trouble adapting to a technological shift that has caused PC sales to fall as more people use smartphones and tablets.

The company said last month that its fiscal second-quarter earnings fell 72 percent, in part because of price-cutting aimed at slowing a sales decline.

Michael Dell wants to take his company private because he foresees the business going through a painful transition that will likely hurt earnings, something that will be easier to endure without Wall Street's fixation on short-term results.

But Icahn has said the buyout would keep stockholders from sharing the gains the company will reap from a business turnaround. His announcement Monday comes more than a month after he vowed to keep fighting Michael Dell's takeover and said "the war regarding Dell is far from over."

Icahn wanted to oust Dell's board and pursue a complex alternative to Michael Dell's bid that Icahn has said would be worth at least $15.50 per share.

But the investor said Monday that a Delaware court ruling and a higher bid from Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners — they had raised the price from $13.65 per share and added the dividend — hurt his chances in Thursday's vote.

Icahn wanted the vote on Michael Dell's offer and the company's annual meeting to be scheduled the same day so he could oust the board. But he noted in his shareholder letter that a Delaware judge ruled that the gap between Thursday's vote and the annual meeting set for next month was legal.

Dell shares rose 1 cent to $13.85 Monday morning while the Nasdaq exchange also climbed less than 1 percent.

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Romanian PM: No support for gold mine

BUCHAREST, Romania — Romania's prime minister predicted Monday that Parliament will not approve a proposed Canadian gold mine that has led to large protests over the cyanide that would be used in its extraction process.

Victor Ponta said he would look for other ways to find jobs in the deprived area where Canadian company Gabriel Resources has been trying to get permits to build what would be the biggest gold mine in Europe by razing four mountains to make way for an open pit mine.

For that to happen, Parliament must pass legislation that would approve the mine in Rosia Montana town in a mining area of northwest Romania as a "special national interest" that would create foreign investment and jobs in the deprived area.

Thousands of Romanians have protested this week, both for and against the proposed mine. Supporters say it would bring foreign investment and jobs, but opponents — who have held the largest protests — say it would be too big an environmental risk.

The leader of two main political parties said Monday they oppose the project, but no date has been set for Parliament's vote.

Gabriel Resources said in a statement that if Parliament rejects the legislation, it would assess what recourse is open to it, including suing Romania for "multiple breaches of international investment treaties."

Anti-mine protesters have said the project would hand over Romania's assets to the Canadian company and the country would earn too little from the deal.

Ponta has acknowledged that his government could be sued by Gabriel Resources, but he said Monday that he and his Cabinet ministers don't want to be held responsible for "undermining the national economy."

President Traian Basescu and Ponta have accused each other of illicitly taking money to support the proposed mine. But Basescu, who once strongly supported the project, last week announced that he would take a neutral stance on the legislation.

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Thai Airways skids off runway; 14 passengers hurt

BANGKOK — A Thai Airways Airbus 330-300 skidded off the runway while landing at Bangkok's main airport after its landing gear malfunctioned, the airline said Monday. Fourteen people were injured while evacuating the plane, it said.

It was the second mishap in less than two weeks for Thailand's national carrier.

After the accident, workers on a crane blacked out the Thai Airways logo on the tail and body of the aircraft in an apparent effort to protect the airline's image. An airline official, Samud Poom-On, said the move was normal practice for Thai Airways after an accident.

Samud initially said the practice was mandated by Star Alliance, but later said that was not the case. The global airline grouping also said it had no such policy.

The flight from Guangzhou, China, was carrying 288 passengers and 14 crew members.

"After touchdown at Suvarnabhumi Airport, the landing gear malfunctioned and caused the aircraft to skid off the runway," Thai Airways President Sorajak Kasemsuvan said in a statement. "Sparks were noticed from the vicinity of the right landing gear near the engine; the matter is under investigation."

Airbus spokesman Justin Dubon said it was too early to comment on what caused the accident. He said Airbus has dispatched a team of experts to Bangkok to aid in the investigation.

Photos taken after the incident showed deep furrows from skid marks on the runway and in a grassy area off the runway, and the aircraft resting with its nose down and emergency slides inflated.

"The captain took control of the aircraft until it came to a complete stop and passengers were evacuated from the aircraft emergency exits," the Thai Airways president said.

A Thai Airways official said 13 passengers were injured, but an airline statement later said 14 passengers had been hurt during the evacuation. It said two of those injured remained at a Bangkok hospital late Monday.

The incident occurred less than two weeks after 20 passengers were injured when a Thai Airways Airbus A380 hit severe turbulence as it was descending to Hong Kong's airport.

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Associated Press writer Greg Keller in Paris contributed to this report.

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Oil falls below $110 after hitting 2-year high

The price of oil fell below $110 a barrel Monday, slipping from a two-year high as the prospects of a U.S. attack against Syria remained unclear.

By late morning, benchmark oil for October delivery was down 85 cents to $109.68 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Friday, oil gained $2.16 to close at $110.53, the highest closing price since May 3, 2011.

President Barack Obama has called for military action against the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad in retaliation for what the White House says was a chemical weapons attack against civilians in suburban Damascus last month.

But Obama has so far failed to win sufficient support for intervention both at home and abroad. The U.S. Congress is set to hold votes on authorizing limited strikes into Syria as soon as Wednesday while international backing for military action is still feeble and Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would continue assisting Assad if the U.S. attacks.

On Monday, Assad warned the U.S. of repercussions if it launches a military attack against him. But in a surprise, Russia said it is pressing Syria to move its chemical weapons to areas under international control to avoid a U.S. military strike.

Obama plans to address the nation from the White House on Tuesday about Syria.

Brent, the benchmark for international crudes, was down $1.66 to $114.46 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

In other energy futures trading on Nymex:

— Wholesale gasoline fell 2 cents to $2.83 per gallon.

— Natural gas rose 4 cents to $3.58 per 1,000 cubic feet.

— Heating oil retreated 2 cents to $3.14 per gallon.

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Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.

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Koch Industries buying Molex for $7.2B

LISLE, Ill. — Koch Industries Inc. is buying electronic components and cables maker Molex for $7.2 billion.

Koch — run by the billionaire brothers Charles and David — said Monday that it will pay $38.50 per Molex Inc. share. That's a 31 percent premium to the company's common stock price of $29.34 on Friday.

The companies put the deal's total value at $7.2 billion when stock options and restricted stock for Molex are added to the valuation of its outstanding shares. Molex Inc. has about 178.2 million outstanding shares, according to FactSet.

Molex will remain headquartered in Lisle, Ill. and keep its current management team. Molex will also keep its company name and will run as a Koch subsidiary.

Koch, based in Wichita, Kan., owns a variety of businesses, including the paper and paper products maker Georgia-Pacific; an oil refinery and chemicals company; a pipeline company; a cattle company; a fertilizer company; and commodity trading and services companies. It has annual sales of $115 billion.

Earlier this year, a Koch subsidiary made a $240 million investment in American Greetings Corp. to assist the company's transition to private ownership. Its refinery subsidiary bought two ethanol plants. Also this year, company acknowledged interest in buying media companies, though it dropped a pursuit of buying newspapers owned by the Tribune Co. of Chicago. Last year Koch bought a 45 percent interest in Guardian Industries Corp., a maker of glass and automotive products.

Chairman and CEO Charles Koch said in a statement that Molex "matches up well with our culture and our core capabilities. It also provides a significant new platform for growth."

Both companies' boards approved the transaction, which is expected to close by year's end. It still needs shareholder approval and is not subject to a financing condition.

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Robohand uses 3D printing to replace lost digits

JOHANNESBURG — Richard Van As, a South African carpenter, lost four fingers from his right hand to a circular saw two years ago.

He was unable to afford the tens of thousands of dollars to get a myoelectric hand, which detects a muscle's electric impulses to activate an artificial limb.

"After my accident, I was in pain, but wouldn't take painkillers. I barely slept, and the more pain I had the more ideas I got," he told The Associated Press. "Sometimes you have to chop fingers off to start thinking."

He decided to build his own hand. After seeing a video posted online of a mechanical hand made for a costume in a theater production, he reached out to its designer, Ivan Owen, in Seattle.

Enter Robohand — a device that Van As and Owen invented that is made from cables, screws, 3D printing and thermoplastic. It uses the rotation of a joint to enable five plastic digits to grasp. The device looks like a robot's hand in a science fiction movie, costs about $500 to make and can be reproduced using plans on the Internet and a 3D printer.

Van As is now on a mission to spread the mechanism to people without fingers or hands all over the world. The two gadget-lovers collaborated on developing a design for the device for a wide range of ages that could be used to grab objects, unlike most existing arm prostheses. Van As has fitted Robohands on about 170 people, from toddlers to adults, thanks to donations.

At first they used a milling machine, making Van As a metal robotic forefinger digit that helps him work in carpentry to this day. That's when they perfected the shape for the robotic fingers.

"Ivan was a gift to me," Van As said.

Then they turned to 3D printing which creates the device in plastic. The 3D printer gives much greater flexibility, allowing the device to be re-sized on the computer for each user and then manufactured through the printer. A glove-like covering is fitted in thermoplastic, and then fingers are created on the 3D printer by melting and stacking plastic to make Lego-like digits which are connected to the glove with small cables and screws.

The team got a boost when two printers were donated by the Brooklyn-based Makerbot, one for use in Johannesburg and the other for Seattle.

"What was taking us two weeks to put together took us 20 hours," Van As said. He opened drawers full of bolts, screws and leftover hinges from the beginning phases of the project. "Now it looks easy."

They then started working on a design to help children with Amniotic Band Syndrome, a condition where children are born without appendages because their circulation is cut off in the womb by amniotic bands.

To spread the device as widely as possible, they made the Robohand an Open Source design available online, and Van As now collects donations to make hands for people around the world.

"I don't want to make money out of misery," Van As said, dismissing the idea that he could make a profit on the mechanical hand.

Robohands are different from other prostheses for three simple reasons: "functionality, simplicity and cost," Van As said.

He started with $10,000 in donations from around the world. "I said I'd do about 100 hands then disappear, but it keeps going," said Van As. "How do you say no?"

Owen stopped working with Robohands in January to focus on education, "specifically on how to introduce the students of today to 3D printing," he said.

At $500, a Robohand is significantly cheaper than the typical $10,000 to $15,000 cost for a conventional below-the-elbow prosthesis, said Eric Neufeld a U.S.-based certified Prosthetist and Orthotist and the director of Range of Motion Project, known as ROMP, which provides prosthetic limbs to those who cannot afford them around the world.

"There are very few options just for digits, so that is another problem they are addressing," Neufeld said.

"It's a pioneering thing they are doing. It gets people thinking about what other components can be made in the same way," he said, adding that he will watch Robohands closely for possible use by his organization.

Eventually, Van As said he'd like to see Robohands kits available for sale at stores, so that anyone could simply build one for themselves. He's waiting for the design to be patented. Already people from Australia to Newfoundland are volunteering to print Robohands.

"We took the 3D printing world by surprise," Van As said. "It wasn't the first medical breakthrough in the 3D world, but people are eager to get a hold of it now."

Van As grins as he holds up a tiny white and blue Robohand in his shop. "This is for a 2 ½ year old in Australia." Casts of other arms are strewn about the garage workshop, which is also full of spools of 3D printing material, machines, experiments and constructions.

Twelve-year old Dylan Laas got his Robohand in March. His mother, Jacqui, said her son, who does not have a right hand because of Amniotic Band Syndrome, is approaching activities with new interest thanks to the gadget.

"It looks cool. It makes me look like Darth Vader ... It's fun to use," he said, adding that he can't wait to go swimming with it.

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On the internet:

http://robohand.net

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/sustaining-robohand

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:44150

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Robohand/260864887366912

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Owners of Neiman Marcus sell chain for $6 billion

NEW YORK — Luxury merchant Neiman Marcus is getting a new owner.

Ares Management and Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board announced Monday they are buying the luxury chain Neiman Marcus for $6 billion. The two new owners will hold an equal economic interest in Neiman Marcus, and the company's management will retain a minority stake.

"We plan on investing meaningful capital into the business to ensure Neiman's long-term position as the unparalleled leader in luxury retailer," said David Kaplan, senior partner and co-head of the private equity group of Ares.

The agreement follows an acquisition of another big luxury player: Saks Inc. Saks Inc., which operates Saks Fifth Avenue, recently agreed to sell itself to Hudson's Bay Co., the Canadian parent of upscale retailer Lord & Taylor, for about $2.4 billion.

The two deals come as the luxury market is showing signs of a slowdown after having rebounded after the Great Recession. Bain & Co. predicts luxury sales will be up 5 percent to 7 percent in the Americas this year, down from 13 percent in 20012.

In a statement, Karen Katz, president and CEO of Neiman Marcus, said that she has great confidence that Neiman Marcus's customers, employees and suppliers will share in her enthusiasm that its new investors will help pursue a focus dedicated to luxury fashion, innovative marketing and customer service.

Neiman Marcus, founded in 1907 by Herbert Marcus Sr., his sister Carrie Marcus, and her husband A.L Neiman, has had a series of owners during its rich history.

The company was sold to department store operator Broadway-Hale in 1969 and began planning national expansion outside of Texas. Through a series of deals, the retailer came under the ownership of the conglomerate Harcourt General, which also published textbooks and owned movie theaters.

In 1999, Harcourt General spun off Neiman Marcus stores and Bergdorf Goodman as its separate, publicly traded entity, the Neiman Marcus Group. In 2005, TPG Capital and Warburg Pincus bought the company for $5.1 billion in 2005, taking it private.

Neiman Marcus, which operates 79 stores, has a long-held reputation for coddling its wealthy shoppers with customer service that goes above and beyond the standard. In 1984, it established InCircle, the industry's first customer loyalty program, which now has 144,000 members and generated 40 percent of the company's total revenue in the latest fiscal year. Neiman Marcus also expanded its business online in 2000, becoming the first major luxury store to do so.

Now, like other upscale retailers, Neiman Marcus is trying to reinvent its shopping experience for its customers who are increasingly using their tablets and smartphones to research and buy their designer goods.

In June, the equity firms that currently own Neiman Marcus filed a plan for the Dallas-based company to go public while at the same time it searched for a buyer. The new deal, which is expected to be finalized in the fourth quarter, likely ends the retailer's opportunity to go public

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Zappos.com moving into old Las Vegas city hall

LAS VEGAS — A first wave of online shoe retailer Zappos.com workers is stepping into the company's new downtown Las Vegas corporate headquarters.

About 200 employees will see the results Monday of a $40 million makeover at the renovated former Las Vegas city hall building at Stewart Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard.

A Las Vegas Review-Journal preview (http://bit.ly/1fOoHEM) found a Lego brick sculpture in the lobby, an open-form office layout throughout the 12-story building, and pingpong tables and elevator video games for employees.

Up to 1,800 more workers will follow in days ahead.

The opening comes nearly three years after city officials and Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh (SHAY') agreed on a lease with the company that owns the property. Zappos.com previously relocated its headquarters from San Francisco to Henderson.

City Hall moved in February 2012 to a new building several blocks away.

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Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com

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Shell to negotiate with Nigerians over oil spill

LAGOS, Nigeria — Shell officials on Monday began talks in Nigeria's southern city of Port Harcourt with representatives for the Bodo community on compensation and cleanup five years after one of the worst oil spills in Nigeria's history.

Some experts say two oil spills that started in 2008 led to the largest loss of a mangrove habitat ever caused by an oil spill, affecting about 30,000 people in the Niger Delta area since then, according to London-based law firm Leigh Day.

"These people, since 2008 they are living on a creek of oil. You step out of the front door you see oil, breathe in oil and toxic fumes," said lawyer Daniel Leader of Leigh Day, a law firm that is representing about 15,000 people from the community that filed a lawsuit in 2012.

Although Royal Dutch Shell has admitted responsibility for the two spills, the impact has been disputed and will be the main focus of negotiations in Port Harcourt.

Royal Dutch Shell said a joint investigation team estimated 4,100 barrels were lost in the two spills. That estimate is based on the initial investigations by representatives from the company and the local community, spokesman Jonathan French told The Associated Press.

"Having said all that, it doesn't matter how much was spilled because the compensation will be based on the financial loss that people have suffered because of the spill in the lagoon," he said. "And that is a matter of dispute between us and the claimant."

Leigh Day said that 15,000 fishermen and 31,000 inhabitants of 35 villages were affected in and around the Bodo lagoon and its associated waterways. The law firm says independent experts estimate between 500,000 and 600,000 barrels were spilled, devastating the environment that sits amid 90 square kilometers (35 square miles) of mangroves, swamps and channels.

"The majority of its inhabitants are subsistence fishermen and farmers. Until the two 2008 spills Bodo was a relatively prosperous town based on fishing," the firm said in a statement. The spills have destroyed the fishing industry and environment there, it said.

"Those communities are still having water shipped into them. But it's patchy, and we fear many of those communities are drinking from poisoned wells," Leader, the Leigh Day lawyer, said.

But Shell says such estimates are high.

Shell spokesman French said the company did not have access to the area to clean it up, and that not all oil spilled was a result of the company's operations. Shell blames most of the spills in the region on militant attacks or thieves tapping into pipelines to steal crude oil, which ends up on the black market.

Nigeria, one of the top crude oil suppliers to the United States, requires companies to promptly clean up oil spills but the policy is not enforced.

Both parties have said they hope to reach an agreement by the end of the week.

Neither side would discuss possible settlement figures. Britain's Guardian newspaper reported that the company is thought to be offering about $20 million in compensation while the villagers seek $200 million.

Local communities remain largely hostile to Shell and other oil firms because of environmental damage. Some environmentalists say as much as 550 million gallons of oil have been poured into the delta during Shell's roughly 50 years of production in Nigeria.

The United Nations has recommended that the oil industry and Nigeria's government set up a fund, with an initial injection of $1 billion, to begin what could be a 30-year cleanup and restoration project in the oil-stained region.

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Mass. GOP calls for repeal of software tax

BOSTON — Republican lawmakers and business groups are ramping up pressure on the Legislature to repeal a new sales tax on computer and software services.

The minority leaders of the House and Senate plan to file a bill on Monday to eliminate the 6.25 percent tax that took effect this summer as part of a massive transportation financing law. The tax has drawn sharp criticism from technology companies in the state.

The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, which also opposes the tax, released a new analysis on Monday that the group said showed the state was now imposing the highest tax on software services in the nation.

Democratic legislative leaders and Gov. Deval Patrick have indicated that if the tax is repealed, it would have to be replaced by another equivalent source of revenue.

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