Subsidiary

Columbia-based Micros Systems Inc. said Thursday that it overstated revenue by $6.9 million and pretax income by $4.4 million over the past five years because of fraud by a Japanese subsidiary. The company, which supplies information systems to the hospitality and retail industry, said the overstatements weren't enough to adjust previous earnings statements. Micros also said that fiscal second quarter earnings for the period ended Dec. 31 were flat at $26.1 million, or 32 cents per share.

Legg Mason Inc. has lost two key employees of its Legg Mason Capital Management, including portfolio manager Mary Chris Gay. Gay, manager of an overseas version of the subsidiary's well-known Value Trust fund, and Randy Befumo, head of research at Legg Mason Capital Management, left May 15 and are "pursuing other opportunities," said spokeswoman Mary Athridge. Sam Peters, manager of the Value Trust fund in the United States, last week replaced Gay as manager of the Value Fund that is modeled after the Value Trust.

Integral Systems Inc. of Columbia announced Friday that it will pay $34.7 million to acquire CVG Inc. and its subsidiary, Avtec Systems Inc., both of Chantilly, Va., in an all-cash transaction. Integral Systems provides technology satellite missions of the U.S. Defense Department and others. CVG-Avtec provides satellite-based communications to government and commercial markets worldwide. The acquisition is expected to help Integral expand its client base and product line. CVG-Avtec has about 100 employees, who will be retained in the purchase.

Legg Mason Inc. plans to lay off an undisclosed number of employees as it folds its once high-profile Legg Mason Capital Management unit in Baltimore into a much larger investment division based in New York. Capital Management rose to fame under star money manager Bill Miller, whose Legg Mason Value Trust fund made headlines year after year for beating its stock market benchmark. Though Capital Management's investment team will remain at Legg's headquarters in Harbor East, the merger is a symbolic loss for the city.

Legg Mason Inc. plans to lay off an undisclosed number of employees as it folds its once high-profile Legg Mason Capital Management unit in Baltimore into a much larger investment division based in New York. Capital Management rose to fame under star money manager Bill Miller, whose Legg Mason Value Trust fund made headlines year after year for beating its stock market benchmark. Though Capital Management's investment team will remain at Legg's headquarters in Harbor East, the merger is a symbolic loss for the city.

Not as big news as the national mortgage settlement worth nearly $1 billion to Maryland. But the Federal Trade Commission announced today that a subsidiary of Bank of America agreed to settle charges that it illegally overcharged struggling homeowners by more than $36 million. BAC Home Loans Servicing has already returned $28 million to consumers. In the new settlement, it will return another $8 million. BAC Home Loans is the successor to Countrywide, one of the nation's largest mortgage servicer that was acquired in 2008 by Bank of America.

MNC Financial Inc. today announced it has agreed to sell Landmark Financial Services Inc., its consumer finance subsidiary, to Commercial Credit Inc. for about $370 million.MNC Financial is the parent company of Maryland National Bank.MNC Financial said it expects to close the transaction in early January 1991. The transaction would permit MNC Financial to reduce its debt by about $374 million, the company says.

An unsolicited $3.5 billion offer to buy National Medical Care Inc. has left W. R. Grace & Co. little choice but to get rid of the profitable subsidiary, the company's new chairman and chief executive told major institutional shareholders and Wall Street analysts in separate meetings yesterday, attendees said.Albert J. Costello, who was elected to the top posts at the $5 billion specialty chemicals and health care subsidiary only a week ago, did not specify how the company intended to dispose of NMC.But he said he expected to be able to make a "very strong recommendation" to the Grace board within the next month to six weeks.

When former Enron Chief Executive Jeffrey K. Skilling was sentenced last week to more than 24 years in prison for his role in the company's 2001 collapse, it was a reminder of how the Enron scandal forced changes in government's oversight of corporate America. In the wake of that scandal, Congress strengthened securities laws in 2002 to protect investors and markets from future financial disasters. Unfortunately, powerful corporations are challenging these laws in bitter legal disputes across the country.

The Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. unveiled a new subsidiary yesterday created to combine the utility's 11 appliance and electronic stores and its furnace and air conditioning repair arm into a single entity.The change in BGE's corporate structure, which is effective July 1, removes the company's service operations from its main utility business and combines it with the unregulated merchandise operation.The new entity, called BGE Home Products & Services Inc., would be formally separate from the utility.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced Monday that it had ordered three subsidiaries of American Express to refund about $85 million to roughly a quarter-million consumers for violating consumer protection laws. In addition, several federal agencies fined the credit card giant $27.5 million. The CFPB said illegal activity at the American Express subsidiaries was uncovered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Utah Department of Financial Institutions during a regular examination of American Express Centurion Bank.

Barnes & Noble has teamed up with Microsoft to create a powerful competitor to the Amazon Kindle -- setting up a mano a mano battle for dominance of the e-reader market. The deal is built around the Barnes & Noble Nook and related digital business. Microsoft annonced a $300 million investment in a new Barnes & Noble subsidiary, which could be spun off as a separate public company. Microsoft will hold a 17.6% equity stake in the subsidiary, giving it a valuation of $1.7 billion.

Not as big news as the national mortgage settlement worth nearly $1 billion to Maryland. But the Federal Trade Commission announced today that a subsidiary of Bank of America agreed to settle charges that it illegally overcharged struggling homeowners by more than $36 million. BAC Home Loans Servicing has already returned $28 million to consumers. In the new settlement, it will return another $8 million. BAC Home Loans is the successor to Countrywide, one of the nation's largest mortgage servicer that was acquired in 2008 by Bank of America.

AirTran Airways announced this week that it will offer nonstop weekend flights between BWI Marshall Airport and Aruba starting December 17. According to BWI spokesman Jonathan Dean, the Saturday and Sunday service is the first new international route launched by AirTran since it became a subsidiary of Southwest Airlines. Dean noted in a statement that with the new service, Aruba becomes the sixth nonstop international or Caribbean destination offered by AirTran from BWI, after Bermuda; Montego Bay, Jamaica; Cancun, Mexico; Nassau, Bahamas; and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The Russian owner of the Sparrows Point Steel Mill said Wednesday it is selling the Baltimore County plant — once vital to building the company's U.S. footprint and to Maryland's manufacturing industry — to the Renco Group because the business isn't profitable enough. The sale is part of a $1.2 billion transaction, expected to close later this month, that also would transfer Severstal plants in Warren, Ohio, and Wheeling, W.Va., to Renco. The deal would be the fourth ownership change at the plant since Bethlehem Steel declared bankruptcy in 2001.

The New York Stock Exchange will purchase renewable electricity certificates from a Constellation Energy subsidiary, the company announced Wednesday. Constellation NewEnergy Inc. will produce wind energy at certified facilities in the United States to match the approximately 28 million kilowatt-hours used annually by the stock exchange, according to the announcement. By supporting this renewable source of electric power generation, which will displace generation using conventional fuels, the exchange will avoid production of more than 57 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.

With its merchandise operation under fire for being subsidized by ratepayers, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. yesterday announced that it will establish a separate subsidiary for its merchandise and service businesses."

Integral Systems Inc. of Columbia announced Friday that it will pay $34.7 million to acquire CVG Inc. and its subsidiary, Avtec Systems Inc., both of Chantilly, Va., in an all-cash transaction. Integral Systems provides technology satellite missions of the U.S. Defense Department and others. CVG-Avtec provides satellite-based communications to government and commercial markets worldwide. The acquisition is expected to help Integral expand its client base and product line. CVG-Avtec has about 100 employees, who will be retained in the purchase.