From wire reports

Kodak's new strategy develops opposition

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Eastman Kodak Co.'s decision to bet its future on digital photography has touched off a battle with a potent group of dissident investors.

Investors reacted with fury last month when Kodak slashed its generous annual dividend by 72 percent to fund a major shift away from its ailing conventional film business and into the fast-growing but highly competitive digital arena.

Institutional investors led by Providence Capital Inc. are staging a forum today to examine ways to prod the world's biggest photography company to alter its new course.

Best Buy declares first-ever dividend

RICHFIELD, Minn. - Best Buy Co. Inc. declared its first-ever cash dividend Tuesday.

Best Buy said it will pay 30 cents per common share Dec. 9 to shareholders of record at the close of business Nov. 18. An additional 10 cents per share is payable Jan. 28 to shareholders of record at the close of business Jan. 7.

Anderson said changes in the federal tax code have made dividend payments more attractive to Best Buy's investors.

Ex-banker's lawyer worried about delays

NEW YORK - Lawyers for former star technology banker Frank Quattrone told a judge Tuesday they are concerned that group dynamics, not evidence, will determine the jury's verdict in the obstruction-of-justice trial.

In a closed session with U.S. District Judge Richard Owen, Quattrone lawyer John W. Keker said he was worried about delays in the case. The jury is to resume deliberations today after four days off.

Before the jury is whether Quattrone, a former banker at Credit Suisse First Boston, obstructed federal investigations when he encouraged employees in a December 2000 e-mail to destroy files.

Conseco pursues mansion foreclosure

INDIANAPOLIS - Conseco Inc. is seeking foreclosure of a $19.4 million mortgage on former CEO Stephen Hilbert's mansion toward recovering $217 million the company says he owes, a lawyer for the insurer said.

Talks to settle the loan and interest debt out of court have bogged down, leading to Conseco's efforts to collect the money through litigation, attorney Reed Oslan said.

Conseco filed the lawsuit targeting Hilbert's home on Monday in Superior Court. It seeks $62 million in interest payments from loans Hilbert took out to buy Conseco stock in a company-sponsored program of a type now barred under federal law.

Mexican investor cuts Circuit City holding

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim cut his holdings in Circuit City Stores Inc., the second-largest U.S. electronics chain, after the retailer rejected his $1.5 billion takeover offer.

Slim, Latin America's richest man, reduced his stake to 15.1 million shares, or 7.2 percent, from about 19.1 million, or 9.2 percent, of Richmond, Virginia-based Circuit City in June, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Circuit City shares fell as much as 7 percent.

The sale may indicate Slim, 63, is abandoning efforts to take over Circuit City to combine with CompUSA Inc., which his Mexican retail and restaurant chain bought three years ago, said analysts such as Michael Via at Anderson & Strudwick.