Business Briefs for Nov. 11

VIRGINIA

Star Scientific at risk of Nasdaq delisiting

Tobacco company Star Scientific Inc. has six months to get its stock price above $1 per share or face possible delisting from the Nasdaq stock exchange.

The Petersburg-based company said it was notified by Nasdaq officials on Nov. 5 that it was not in compliance with the exchange's minimum-bid rules because its closing per-share bid price was below $1 for 30 consecutive days.

Star said it has until May 4 to regain compliance. To do so, the closing bid price for its stock must be $1 or more for at least 10 consecutive trading days.

Shares closed at 74 cents yesterday, down 7 cents, or 8.6 percent. The stock has traded between $5.89 and 71 cents during the past year.

Star, which makes smokeless tobacco products, saw it stock price drop more than 70 percent in June after a jury returned an unfavorable verdict for the company in a patent-infringement lawsuit against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

Dividend is paid in Western Sizzlin deal

Shareholders of Roanoke-based Western Sizzlin Corp. received a special dividend as part of the deal to be acquired by Steak n Shake Co.

The dividend, distributed Friday, was paid at the rate of 0.4657 shares of Steak n Shake for each share of Western Sizzlin outstanding as of Nov. 2, the company said yesterday.

Steak n Shake bought Western in October in a deal valued at $23 million.

Inn at Little Washington gets five-star rating

The Inn at Little Washington and the inn's dining room are the only five-star hotel and restaurant in Virginia as ranked by the Forbes Travel Guide, formerly the Mobil Travel Guide.

The national travel guide's latest ratings list three hotels in Virginia with four stars: the Williamsburg Inn, the Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner and the Ritz-Carlton Pentagon City.

The Greenbrier Spa in West Virginia also received four stars.

THE NATION

Survey gauges mood for purchasing homes

Just one in 20 Americans say they plan to buy a home within the next year, and they're most likely to be 34 or younger and living in the South or West, according to a survey released today.

Roughly a quarter of potential buyers said the top reason they would buy now is because prices have bottomed out. That reason topped bargain-priced foreclosures, worries about rising interest rates and a wide selection of homes.

The survey, conducted for Move.com, reveals how Americans are responding to a nascent and fragile housing recovery after three years of staggering price declines.

The percentage of buyers thinking of jumping into the market was down slightly from a March survey but up about 1 point from a poll in June.

Optimism still shaky at small businesses

Small-business owners haven't seen much improvement in the economy, and more are expected to cut jobs instead of adding them over the next three months, a monthly survey has found.

The National Federation of Independent Business Index of Small Business Optimism edged up 0.3 of a point in October to a reading 89.1, but the index has been below 90 for six straight quarters. In the 1980-82 recession, by comparison, the index fell below 90 for only one quarter.

Four of the 10 index components rose, while four declined and two were unchanged. The main small-business index reached its lowest point in the current downturn in March, when it fell to 81.

Elsewhere

• Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, two Bear Stearns executives who ran hedge funds that crashed in 2007 amid the subprime-mortgage meltdown, were acquitted yesterday of lying to investors about the looming crisis on Wall Street.

• The National Association of Realtors said home prices fell in 80 percent of U.S. cities in the third quarter as heavily discounted distressed sales made up 30 percent of all deals. But home sales continued their climb, with quarterly sales outpacing the second-quarter and previous-year figures. The national median price is $177,900, or 11 percent below 2008's third quarter.

• American Express Co. said spending on its credit cards rose 3 percent in October, the first year-over-year increase this year -- a sign that consumers may be feeling more confident about the economy. The amount charged on American Express cards fell more than 5 percent in September and more than 10 percent in August compared with the same time periods a year ago.

• Adobe Systems, the maker of Photoshop, Flash and Acrobat software products, says it is cutting 680 full-time jobs, or about 9 percent of its work force, as it aligns costs with its budget. -- Staff and Wire Reports