Business Briefing

Chrysler may take 50 dealers back

Chrysler Group said it was sending letters detailing terms of reinstatement to 50 dealers terminated during the automaker’s bankruptcy proceedings.

General Motors Co. made a similar move earlier this month, but the scope was much greater -- more than 600 dealerships received offers.

The offers were sent out in addition to 36 letters and/or agreements already awarded to the rejected dealers. Chrysler had identified nearly 800 dealers to cull from its network during its own bankruptcy last year.

TRADE

China drops ban on U.S. pork

China has become the last nation to lift its ban on U.S. pork as fears about the H1N1 virus, or so-called swine flu, ease.

Nick Giordano of the Washington-based National Pork Producers Council says final details of a trade agreement are being worked out and that the world’s largest consumer of pork could begin accepting shipments within two weeks.

That’s good news for U.S. pork farmers who were hit with a triple whammy of high feed costs, a drop in demand at home with the recession and import bans by more than two dozen countries worried about transmission of swine flu.

BRANDING

Apple obtains iPad trademark

Apple Inc., which plans to begin selling its new iPad tablet computer April 3, obtained the trademark to the name from Fujitsu Ltd., according to records with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Fujitsu was approved for a trademark on the iPad name for use in hand-held computing devices. The name was assigned to Apple by Fujitsu, records made public Friday show.

Owning the trademark on the iPad name allows Apple to forbid others from using it without its permission and eliminates the possibility of a legal battle over the name between Apple and Fujitsu, which first sought the trademark in 2003.

COMPENSATION

$19.6 million for Bewkes in 2009

Time Warner Inc. Chief Executive Jeffrey Bewkes was awarded 2009 compensation valued at $19.6 million, based on U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules, as he spun off cable and Internet units and boosted cash.

Bewkes was paid $1.75 million in salary after turning down a raise to $2 million when he added the title of chairman in January 2009, the company said in a regulatory filing. He received a bonus of $12.1 million, up from $7.6 million a year earlier.

The remainder of his compensation came from stock and option awards, insurance payments and personal benefits, such as transportation.

MANUFACTURING

Historic gun plant to close

Marlin Firearms Co., a 140-year-old company that made a gun favored by Old West sharpshooter Annie Oakley, is closing its North Haven, Conn., plant, company officials said.

Workers said they were told that all 265 employees at the plant will lose their jobs.

Jessica Kallam, a spokeswoman with Madison, N.C.’s Remington Arms Co., which owns Marlin, said the Connecticut plant would close by June 2011. She said Marlin is relocating its manufacturing operations to an undetermined site.

-- times wire reports