Million Shares

Ciena Corp.'s top executives sold 1.48 million of the company's shares for $64 million as part of a secondary offering, five weeks before the telephone equipment maker warned of slowing sales growth.The July selling came as Ciena shares climbed toward their record close of $57.875 Aug. 5. It was paced by outside director Clifford Higgerson's $35.2 million in sales and President and Chief Executive Patrick Nettles' $10.6 million.The Linthicum company's shares more than doubled from their $23 initial public offering price in February.

Corporate Office Properties Trust, a real estate investment and development firm based in Columbia, sold more than 8.6 million new common stock shares during a public offering over the past week, the company announced Tuesday. The company's net proceeds from the sale, before deducting the offering's expenses, was about $204.9 million, according to a statement from the firm. The offering's underwriters purchased all 1.1 million shares available to them, said COPT, which owns about 230 office buildings, totaling 19.8 million square feet of leasable space.

EntreMed Inc., faced with the prospect of running out of cash within months if it takes no action, has announced a public offering of 1.74 million shares of common stock. The shares, the remains of a 3-million-share shelf registration the company filed in January of last year, would raise about $38 million at yesterday's closing price of $21.88 per share. EntreMed's shares fell $2.56, or 10.5 percent, yesterday on the Nasdaq stock market in the wake of the late-Monday announcement, even as biotechnology stocks in general rallied.

Millennial Media Inc., a Baltimore-based mobile advertising company, said Monday it intended to sell a million shares while stockholders planned to sell another nine million shares in a secondary stock offering. Millennial expects to raise $14.5 million from the stock sale, which it intends to use to fund the company's growth, including possible acquisitions of other companies. The company also reported a preliminary third-quarter loss in the range of $1.9 million to $2.4 million, on revenues of $47 million.

Some early investors in Under Armour Inc., including its founder and chief executive, are planning to sell $283 million in stock in their first major cashing-in since taking the Baltimore athletic-wear company public last year. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday, Under Armour reported that investors plan to offer 6.8 million shares at $36.06, with more than 1 million additional shares available if the deal's underwriters should ask for them. CEO Kevin A. Plank, the former University of Maryland football player who created the company's sweat-resistant clothing, plans to sell 1.5 million shares, or about 10 percent of his holdings, for $54.1 million.

EntreMed Inc., a Rockville-based biotechnology company, announced yesterday that it plans a secondary common stock offering of 2 million shares to help pay for drug development. The underwriters also have the option to purchase an additional 300,000 shares to cover overallotments. The offering could raise as much as $120 million, based on yesterday's closing price of $59.875. That was down $6.375 from Wednesday. But that is not likely, according to Alan Auerbach, an analyst with First Security Van Kasper & Co. in Palm Beach, Fla. Noting that EntreMed's shares fell yesterday, Auerbach said that usually happens when a large amount of stock is placed on the market.

NEW YORK -- Financier Carl Icahn said yesterday that he had sold his 19.93 million shares of RJR Nabisco Holding Corp. for $732.4 million, all but ending his 17-month attempt to force the food and tobacco company to split in two.Icahn said investor "euphoria" over talks to settle legal claims against the tobacco industry dashed his second bid to win control of the maker of Camel cigarettes and Oreo cookies. He made about $134.5 million from the sale, not including dividends.It isn't Icahn's first abrupt exit.

AppNet Inc. reported yesterday that its third-quarter revenue was up 67.6 percent over last year and announced that it planned to sell 4 million additional shares of common stock.The Bethesda electronic commerce company had revenue of $30.1 million in the quarter, which ended Sept. 30. In the third quarter of last year, the company took in $18 million.AppNet had a quarterly net loss of $21.3 million, or 68 cents per diluted share. Last year, the company's third-quarter loss was $20.7 million, or $1.09 per share.

Baltimore-based Guilford Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it raised more than $60 million yesterday through a public offering of 3.25 million shares of common stock. Shares were priced at $20.Guilford said it intends to use the money chiefly to fund late-stage human clinical trials of Dopascan, a diagnostic technology for detecting Parkinson's disease and measuring its progression.Guilford licensed the technology from Daiichi Radioisotope Laboratories of Japan.Guilford said the proceeds would also be used to fund development of drugs and diagnostic products for neurological diseases and conditions.

NEW YORK -- Fleet Financial Group Inc. and First Union Corp., which have repurchased 27.5 million shares of their stock, are suddenly forced to sell them again.The banks are now being forced to sell a total of 18.5 million shares to qualify for a special accounting rule that helps make their acquisitions of other banks more affordable, but is contributing toward sending their shares down, surprising some investors."If you bought the stock anticipating buybacks, and now there's no buybacks, some estimates will come down," said Keefe Bruyette & Woods analyst Hal Schroeder.

Annapolis-based hotel investment firm Chesapeake Lodging Trust priced its pending stock offering at $18.50 a share and increased the shares to be sold to 6.5 million, the firm announced in a statement Thursday. That's a million more shares than the real estate investment trust originally said Wednesday that it would be offering. The offering's underwriters also have the option to buy up to 975,000 additional shares. The trust hopes to raise a total of $115.2 million in the offering, expected to close Tuesday.

First Mariner Bank, the Baltimore-based institution that is under regulatory oversight, has acquired 1.8 million shares in Cecil Bancorp Inc., according to documents filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The purchase represents a nearly 25 percent stake in Elkton-based Cecil Bancorp, the parent of Cecil Bank.

A Mega Millions winner has come forward in Kansas to claim a $218.6 million share of the $656 million total winnings in the massive and massively-hyped lottery jackpot, according to Kansas Lottery officials. The Kansas winner — who will remain anonymous — is one of three winners across the nation. One winning ticket was purchased in Baltimore County. The third was purchased in Illinois. The Kansas winner plans to take the cash option, $157.9 million, according to lottery officials there.

First Mariner Bancorp's newly retired chief executive told regulators that he sold just over 1 million shares of company stock this week — for a grand total of $21,084. Edwin F. Hale Sr., who founded the Baltimore parent of 1 s t Mariner Bank, said in a securities filing made public today that he reduced his holdings to about 2 million shares. He remains the largest shareholder of the company, which is struggling to survive after years of losses. Hale reported that he sold his shares in two batches on Wednesday, each "in a private sale to an individual" for 2 cents per share.

The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt will get a $128 million slice of a new mission to grab a sample from an asteroid and return it to Earth in 2023. NASA selected the $800 million OSIRIS-Rex mission for funding Wednesday, passing over competing proposals to send spacecraft to Venus and the moon. The work will be led by Michael J. Drake at the University of Arizona, Tucson, and managed by Goddard. Engineers at the space center will also build one of its instruments.

The CEO of sports apparel company Under Armour plans to sell up to 1,125,000 personal Class B shares over 10 months beginning in February, according to a regulatory filing made Friday. Kevin Plank also plans to sell 125,000 shares of the company's Class B stock for his charitable organization. Plank owns 12,500,000 shares of the company's Class B stock, or about 24.5 percent of the total shares of Class A and B shares available as of Oct. 31. He owns 76.5 percent of voting stock.

NEW YORK -- Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. agreed yesterday to buy about 32 percent of Acrodyne Communications Inc., maker of TV transmitters, for $7.1 million.Sinclair, the Baltimore-based owner of radio and television stations in mostly midsize U.S. markets, will pay $4.3 million for 1.4 million shares of newly issued Acrodyne common stock and warrants to buy up to 8.7 million shares over seven years at prices ranging from $3 to $6 a share.In addition, Sinclair will acquire about 800,000 shares currently held by Scorpion/Newlight investment group for about $2.8 million.

Orbitz Inc., an online travel agency backed by the five biggest U.S. airlines, raised $316.7 million yesterday in an initial public offering valuing the company at about $1 billion. Orbitz, based in Chicago, sold 12.18 million shares at $26 each after indicating a range of $22 to $24 in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The airlines sold 8.18 million shares, and Orbitz sold 4 million shares. The company will use the proceeds to finance its business. AMR Corp.'s American Airlines Inc. and UAL Corp.

McCormick & Co. is expected to make inroads into one of the world's biggest consumer markets for spices with a planned $35 million investment in an Indian spice and seasoning business. Sparks-based McCormick, the world's largest spice company, said Tuesday it had agreed to acquire a 26 percent stake in Eastern Condiments Private Limited, based in the Indian state of Kerala. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter and is subject to regulatory approval. McCormick says the partnership will help it capitalize on the rapid growth of the consumer spice and seasoning market in India — the second-most populous nation and, according to McCormick, the world's largest consumer of spices.