PENNSYLVANIA

PENNSYLVANIA
Stockholders approvePeoples, ESB merger
ELLWOOD CITY, Pa. -- Peoples Home Savings Bank and ESB Financial Corp. will merge under the ESB Financial name after approval by shareholders of both companies, officials said.
Pending regulatory approval, the merger should close in the first quarter of 2005.
ESB, with headquarters in Ellwood City, has 17 branches in Allegheny, Beaver, Butler and Lawrence counties. It employs 261 people and has total assets of more than $1.4 billion.
Chippewa Township-based Peoples has 10 offices in Beaver and Lawrence counties and employs 89. Assets total $337.5 million.
Under the merger, each share of PHSB stock can be converted to $27 in cash or ESB common stock, but at least half of the total PHSB stock must be exchanged for ESB stock under the deal.
Markets were closed Friday, but PHSB last traded at $26.90 a share and ESB shares were $14 each on the Nasdaq index.
Firm gets large orderfor alarms from Tokyo
FREDONIA, Pa. -- The world's largest fire department has placed an order for more than 1,500 Super Pass II Stand-Alone Personal Alert Safety System units from Grace Industries Inc.
The Tokyo Fire Department ordered the motion-sensing man-down alarms. Since 2000, the Tokyo Fire Department has ordered nearly 5,000 of the units, the company said.
With more than 300,000 units produced, Grace Industries is the world's leading manufacturer of NFPA Compliant, Stand-Alone PASS devices.
Marc appoints new CEOfor Pittsburgh office
PITTSBURGH -- Marc USA has promoted Jeff Maggs to executive vice president and chief operating officer of its Pittsburgh office.
Maggs will run the daily operations of the office, and will be responsible for retaining clients and attracting new ones. Maggs joined Marc USA as an intern 21 years ago.
ServiceWare merges;plans move to Calif.
OAKMONT, Pa. -- ServiceWare Technologies Inc. will move its headquarters to Cupertino, Calif., after it merges with Kanisa Inc. in a $17.1 million all-stock deal. ServiceWare will hold a majority stake in the new company.
Kanisa is based in Cupertino. Bruce Armstrong, Kanisa's chief executive officer, will remain in the same position in the combined company, which has yet to be renamed, and ServiceWare CEO Kent Hyman will be chairman of the board.
NATION
Coors pulls ads aftercompetitor complaint
ST. LOUIS -- Coors Brewing Co. has pulled from CBS ads that compare the taste of its Aspen Edge brand to Anheuser-Busch's Michelob ULTRA, Anheuser-Busch said.
Anheuser-Busch alerted Coors of its concerns about the ads that mention Michelob ULTRA on Nov. 12. Anheuser-Busch later filed a challenge with CBS, and has been notified that, in response to the challenge, Coors has decided to pull the ads.
"Competition is the lifeblood of American business, but companies like Coors and SABMiller are now on notice that we will fight for truth in advertising," said Michael J. Owens, vice president of sales and marketing for Anheuser-Busch, Inc.
In the past week, SABMiller has had several of its ads pulled by three major TV networks - ABC, NBC and CBS. Anheuser-Busch challenged these ads for making unsubstantiated claims about taste preference regarding the company's Bud Light brand.
From Vindicator staff/wire services