Business Briefing

SEC targets L.A. firms’ short selling

The Securities and Exchange Commission sued two Los Angeles investment advisory firms, accusing them of improper short selling of securities in advance of their participation in a company’s secondary offering.

The SEC said it filed separate claims against AGB Partners and Palmyra Capital Advisors.

INTERNET

EBay to drop fees for some sellers

EBay hopes to lure more sellers by essentially doing away with “listing� fees for people who occasionally auction items on its site. Instead it will take a cut of the final selling price, it said.

The Internet auction company has tinkered with its fee structure in recent years in hopes of improving the experience people have on its site and reinvigorating its growth.

EBay Inc. told sellers that starting March 30 they would be able to post up to 100 items for auction every 30 days without paying fees to list them. The items must have a starting bid of less than $1, and when they sell, EBay will take 9% of the final price or $50, whichever is less.

TAXES

Iffy breaks have to be flagged

The Internal Revenue Service plans to start requiring large corporations to disclose on their tax returns whether they are taking tax breaks that might be unacceptable to the agency.

Large corporate tax filings are often complex, with some firms taking tax breaks that fall into a gray area of tax law. IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman said that requiring firms to flag those “uncertain tax positions� for IRS examiners would improve enforcement.

Firms must already disclose in financial reports that they have taken such tax positions, but the reports are not usually detailed enough to help IRS examiners.

The new rules -- which are delayed until at least the 2010 tax year -- would require corporations to report the total amount of taxes they would owe if the tax breaks are not allowed, essentially waving a red flag at auditors when taxpayers take big deductions.

RETAIL

Borders says CEO leaving company

Borders Group Inc. said Chief Executive Ron Marshall was leaving after about a year with the company to accept the CEO post at another retailer Borders didn’t name.

Marshall’s departure leaves Borders scrambling to find its fourth CEO in five years and follows a disappointing holiday season and three straight quarters of losses.

Home Depot to lay off 1,000

Home Depot Inc. said it was laying off 1,000 staffers as it cuts three pilot programs and some support positions.

The cuts represent less than 1% of the home-improvement retailer’s more than 300,000 workers.

EARNINGS

J&J profit down, beats estimates

Johnson & Johnson reported a decline in fourth-quarter profit, hurt by restructuring costs.

Net income fell to $2.21 billion, or 79 cents a share, from $2.71 billion, or 97 cents, a year earlier, the New Brunswick, N.J., company said. Profit excluding one-time items was $1.02, beating by 5 cents the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Sales rose 9% to $16.6 billion, topping the average estimate of $15.8 billion.

The company forecast 2010 earnings of $4.85 to $4.95 a share.

-- times wire reports