Eat'n Park names younger Broadhurst its new CEO

Jeff Broadhurst has succeeded his father, Jim, as CEO of Eat'n Park Hospitality Group, the Homestead-based company said Monday. Jeff Broadhurst, with the company since 1996, helped to launch its Parkhurst Dining Services, was named president of Parkhurst in 2002 and president of the Eat'n Park restaurant division in 2006. He will continue in that role, overseeing 80 restaurants. He has a bachelor's degree in hotel and restaurant administration from Cornell University, and a master of business administration degree from the University of Pittsburgh. Jim Broadhurst, Eat'n Park's leader for 35 years, will remain chairman. In all, the company has almost 200 restaurants and dining facilities in six states.

Adobe has new Acrobat

Adobe Systems Inc. is launching a new version of its document sharing software Acrobat, and this time it can package videos. Acrobat allows users to package documents so they can be read across different hardware and operating systems. Acrobat 9 comes with Adobe's video-enabling software Flash. Users can include Flash-based videos when they create and share documents with the portable document format, commonly known as PDF. With a professional version of Acrobat 9, for example, users could package a Power Point presentation not just with images, but with an audio of the presenter's voice.

Dunkin' to open Downtown

The first of 105 new or renovated Dunkin' Donuts stores planned for Pittsburgh and West Virginia over the next nine years is set to open June 30 in Market Square, Downtown. Heartland Restaurant Group of Pittsburgh, meanwhile, said it has temporarily closed the store at 5120 Route 51 in Belle Vernon, Fayette County, for renovations, with a September reopening planned. The store will be reminiscent of the company's roots, dating back more than 55 years, and will feature advanced equipment. Heartland plans up to six Dunkin' Donuts this year in the Pittsburgh region, though economic and construction conditions may delay some openings.

Trial for Milne delayed

A U.S. District judge in Connecticut has postponed until next March the jury selection and trial for John N. Milne, the Connecticut equity fund manager who organized an investment team to buy bankrupt Pittsburgh Brewing Co. last year. Milne is accused by federal prosecutors of insider trading and securities fraud charges in connection with the sale of 850,000 shares of United Rentals Inc. of Greenwich, Conn. for $22 million, while he was an executive of that company. Jury selection was set to begin on Wednesday in Hartford, Conn., before the judge agreed to postpone it until March 9. Milne, a Canadian citizen, remains free on $1 million bond.

PUC targets grid operator

Electric grid operator PJM Interconnection LLC has drawn complaints from utility regulators in Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and now, Pennsylvania, over the way it conducts auctions for future power supplies. The state Public Utility Commission said Monday it is challenging Valley Forge-based PJM's year-old Reliability Pricing Model before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The PUC said PJM's auctions produced unreasonable prices, to the tune of $5 billion in Pennsylvania through May 2011, and failed to increase competition or generation. PJM spokesman Ray Dotter said the auctions have spurred hardware improvements at plants that turn out "thousands of megawatts" more, and over time that should trim prices.

Wine stores planned

The Wine Loft, offering 80 wines by the glass and 275 in bottles, has scheduled its first Pittsburgh opening in September in the building where the SouthSide Works theater is located. "We will offer a variety of both domestic and foreign wines," said Ashley Alessio, adding a second location is being negotiated at the Settler's Ridge development in Robinson. A third may be at Southpointe II in Washington County with two more sites to open within a 90-mile radius of Pittsburgh. Alessio is a partner with Joe DeGruttola in The Wine Loft Pittsburgh, a subsidiary of DH Marketing Concepts Inc. of New Castle, which is the franchiser for Wine Lofts. DeGruttola owns DH where Alessio serves as regional sales manager.

Other business news

• Mylan Inc. has exercised an option related to last year's Merck Generics purchase, and acquired from Merck its Central and Eastern Europe generics businesses. Included in the deal, which Mylan said requires no additional payment, are operations in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic. Mylan Europe, Middle East and Africa President and former Merck Generics executive Didier Barret helped establish Merck's Central and Eastern Europe generics business.

• The $300 million sale of Pittsburgh-based Strategic Energy LLC to Direct Energy Services LLC of Toronto was completed Monday. Strategic Energy serves some 26,000 commercial and industrial customers in 11 states, with 2007 revenues of $504 million. Among its local customers are or have been Duquesne University, PNC Park and the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

• CNX Gas Corp. has settled litigation pending with CDX Gas LLC in U.S. District Court concerning certain CDX patents related to horizontal well designs. As part of the settlement, CNX of Robinson affirmed the validity and enforceability of the patents and has licensed the CDX technology from the Houston-based independent natural gas exploration and production company. No cash was involved in the settlement.