TreeHouse leases warehouse

TreeHouse Foods has signed a lease for 265,000 square feet in a Harmar warehouse owned by Connecticut-based J.S. Karlton Co. The Illinois food company, which this year bought soup and baby food operations at the former H.J. Heinz plant on the North Side, now uses warehouse space in more than one location and is trying to improve efficiency.

Leniency for Enron exec

Paula Rieker, Enron's former corporate secretary, was sentenced yesterday to two years' probation instead of the decade she faced in prison. Prosecutors had asked U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon to give Ms. Rieker, the No. 2 executive in the investor relations department, a reduced sentence because of her help in the Enron investigation. Ms. Rieker, 52, pleaded guilty in May 2004 to insider trading for selling company shares in mid-2001 upon learning that Enron's broadband unit lost millions of dollars more than had been publicly disclosed.

Dunn quits executive post

Former Hewlett-Packard Co. chairwoman Patricia Dunn, charged with conspiracy and fraud for her role in the HP spying scandal, has stepped down from her position as nonexecutive vice chairwoman of Barclays Global Investors, the company said yesterday. Ms. Dunn had taken the position after resigning as global chief executive in 2002 to fight ovarian cancer, the company said.

A towering merger unfolds

Cell-phone tower company Crown Castle International Corp. agreed to buy smaller rival Global Signal Inc. for $4 billion in cash and stock, the companies said yesterday, creating a behemoth with more than 24,000 wireless sites. Including the assumption of $1.8 billion in debt, the deal is valued at $5.8 billion. The acquisition concentrates 16,300 towers in the 100 biggest U.S. cities under Houston-based Crown Castle, compared with 12,600 for top competitor American Tower Corp.

Also in business ...

Nucor will build a $230 million mill in Memphis, Tenn., that will be capable of producing 850,000 tons of steel bar annually for automotive and other customers. Production is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2008. ... The sixth Aspen Dental location to open in the Pittsburgh area in the last 15 months is set for Thursday at 5450 Campbell's Run Road in Robinson. Other Pittsburgh-area offices of Aspen Dental, which is based in Syracuse, N.Y., are in Brentwood, Monaca, Shadyside, North Hills and Belle Vernon ... Mittal Steel South Africa Ltd., which is majority owned by Mittal Steel Co., said it would acquire two idled mills in Mozambique for $11.5 million.