Business & Finance

In its latest regulatory filing, Google, the popular Internet search company, said Monday that its market capitalization after its initial public offering will be an estimated $36 billion, placing it in the company of such Internet giants as Yahoo, valued at $37 billion, eBay at $48.6 billion, and Amazon at $15.3 billion. Shares of the IPO are expected to sell for $108 to $135 each, a price that may discourage small individual investors. Only one other IPO, that of Chicago and Northwestern Holding, has ever been set above $100. If the arrangement remains on schedule, Google, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., expects to raise a record $3.3 billion by offering 24.6 million shares beginning the week of Aug. 9.

Boise Cascade Corp. is selling its paper and timberland assets for $3.2 billion to a new company formed by Madison Dearborn Partners LLC, a Chicago investment firm, BCC said Monday. The announcement completes Boise's transformation from a manufacturing-based company to a global distribution company under the name of OfficeMax, the office products seller Boise Cascade acquired late last year in a $1.2 billion cash-and-stock deal. The reconstituted company will be headquartered in Itasca, Ill., outside Chicago. The remaining timber and paper operation will be privately held, headquartered in Boise, Idaho, and named Boise Cascade LLC.

Due to a labor impasse, Alcoa Inc. will not to reopen an aluminum smelter in central Washington that's stood idle since energy costs soared three years ago, the company said Monday. Although favorable production conditions now exist, Alcoa will cut 400 jobs held by workers who've remained on the payroll doing community service but have refused to make contract concessions. In particular, they oppose contributing to a health care plan that the company's 20,000 other employees participate in.