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Crane seals victory in McGladrey Classic playoff

The duo had finished the 72 regulation holes at 15-under-par 265, Simpson closing with a four-under 66 and Crane firing a sizzling eight-birdie 63."This week I had a great sense of perspective and peace out there," a beaming Crane, whose wife Heather is expecting their third child on Monday, told reporters."The hole opened up for me and it was a great day," he added, referring to his late run of birdies. "I'm just thrilled."Simpson's runner-up finish was good enough for him to overtake British world number one Luke Donald at the top of the 2011 PGA Tour money list with just one event remaining.He leads Donald by $363,029 and both are scheduled to compete in next week's season-ending Disney Classic at Lake Buena Vista, Florida.Crane had the most to celebrate at the breezy Seaside Course on Sunday, though, as he came from seven shots behind with 11 holes remaining in the final round.RED-HOT PUTTINGWielding a red-hot putter, the 35-year-old birdied the eighth and ninth to reach the turn in two-under 33 and picked up further shots at the 10th, 11th, 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th, sinking a 20-footer, to draw level at the top."I was just riding a hot putter, making putts there at 10, 11, and then making birdies at 14 and 15," said Crane. "I looked up on the 16th green and I'm like, 'Wow, I'm two back.'"I had an opportunity to make birdie there and ran one in. The adrenalin went through me here on 17 green when I made it in regulation for birdie. It was a fun day."Simpson, who trailed Donald by $68,971 in the money list at the start of the week, had been bidding for his third PGA Tour victory in just six starts."It's unfortunate the way it ended but it was a good week overall," he said. "I learned a lot. I'm just really happy for my good friend Ben. He played so well all day."Overnight leader and PGA Tour rookie Michael Thompson, who had led by three shots with nine holes to play, bogeyed the last for a 69 and had to settle for third place at 14-under.South African Louis Oosthuizen, who romped to a seven-stroke victory in last year's British Open, was a further stroke back after closing with a 66.

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Adele leads American Music Awards nominations

Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Lil Wayne and country music group The Band Perry were nominated three times, followed by artists such as Bruno Mars and Beyonce with two nods each.Besides Adele, other artist of the year contenders are Gaga, Wayne, Swift and Perry, whose album "Teenage Dream" two months ago achieved the rare distinction of having five singles reach the top of the Billboard's pop songs chart. Perry also will perform at the key music industry awards.In other rock/pop music categories, Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars and the U.S. rapper Pitbull will vie for favorite male artist, while Maroon 5, OneRepublic and the dance music group LMFAO are nominated for favorite band. Besides Adele's hit "21", favorite pop album nominations were shared by Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" and Rihanna's "Loud."In rap/hip hop categories, Wayne, Nicki Minaj and Kanye West earned nods for favorite artist. "Watch The Throne" by West and Jay-Z, "The Carter IV" by Lil Wayne, and "Pink Friday" from Nicki Minaj were nominated for favorite album.Country music nominees included Blake Shelton, Brad Paisley and Jason Aldean for favorite male artist and Sara Evans, Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift for favorite female artist.Chris Brown, Beyonce, Rihanna and Kelly Rowland were all nominated in the soul and R&B categories, and in the indie rock arena, The Black Keys, Foo Fighters and Mumford & Sons will compete for favorite artist.Organizers said that along with Perry, the rapper Pitbull will sing and other performers will be announced at upcoming dates. As in previous years, winners will be determined by online voting.

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Adele leads American Music Awards nominations

Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Lil Wayne and country music group The Band Perry were nominated three times, followed by artists such as Bruno Mars and Beyonce with two nods each.Besides Adele, other artist of the year contenders are Gaga, Wayne, Swift and Perry, whose album "Teenage Dream" two months ago achieved the rare distinction of having five singles reach the top of the Billboard's pop songs chart. Perry also will perform at the key music industry awards.In other rock/pop music categories, Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars and the U.S. rapper Pitbull will vie for favorite male artist, while Maroon 5, OneRepublic and the dance music group LMFAO are nominated for favorite band. Besides Adele's hit "21", favorite pop album nominations were shared by Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" and Rihanna's "Loud."In rap/hip hop categories, Wayne, Nicki Minaj and Kanye West earned nods for favorite artist. "Watch The Throne" by West and Jay-Z, "The Carter IV" by Lil Wayne, and "Pink Friday" from Nicki Minaj were nominated for favorite album.Country music nominees included Blake Shelton, Brad Paisley and Jason Aldean for favorite male artist and Sara Evans, Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift for favorite female artist.Chris Brown, Beyonce, Rihanna and Kelly Rowland were all nominated in the soul and R&B categories, and in the indie rock arena, The Black Keys, Foo Fighters and Mumford & Sons will compete for favorite artist.Organizers said that along with Perry, the rapper Pitbull will sing and other performers will be announced at upcoming dates. As in previous years, winners will be determined by online voting.

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UPDATE 1-UK cost agency rejects Bristol-Myers' skin cancer drug

* Cost watchdog says draft guidance subject to appeal, revisionBy Kate KellandLONDON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Bristol-Myers Squibb's Yervoy -- the first drug to help patients with advanced melanoma live longer -- is not cost effective for use in the taxpayer-funded National Health Service (NHS), Britain's health costs watchdog said on Friday.In a move which angered patient groups, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) said Yervoy, or ipilimumab -- which costs around 20,000 pounds ($31,550) a dose and is given in four doses -- could not be recommended because its longer-term benefits were not clear."We need to be sure that new treatments provide sufficient benefits to patients to justify the significant cost the NHS is being asked to pay," NICE's chief executive Andrew Dillon said in a statement.He said BMS may want to "consider whether it wishes to reduce the acquisition cost to the NHS of the drug", since Yervoy costs around 80,000 pounds ($126,000) per patient whether the treatment is effective for them or not.Advanced melanoma, a type of skin cancer, can quickly spread from the skin to internal organs, such as the brain and often kills its victims in months.Yervoy is the first approved therapy to clearly demonstrate that patients with metastatic melanoma live longer, and patient groups said NICE's decision against it was like handing down a "death sentence" to patients who could benefit from the drug.The treatment was approved by drugs regulators in the United States in March and was in May recommended for approval in Europe by the European Medicines Agency.According to Thomson Reuters Pharma data, market analysts see worldwide sales of Yervoy reaching $1.46 billion in 2016. ($1 = 0.634 British Pounds)But Dillon said NICE was not convinced by the data BMS submitted.He said the key numbers came from a trial which did not compare Yervoy with the drugs currently used to treat people with advanced or metastatic melanoma, although he added that "the results did show the drug could potentially be very effective for a small percentage of patients"."However, the follow up from the trial was too short to determine how long this effect would last," he said."Clinical specialists also told the independent appraisal committee that only around 30 percent of people treated with ipilimumab would have improved survival, with only 10 percent potentially experiencing long-term benefits," he added.The drug is also linked with a number of adverse reactions including diarrhoea, rash, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, decreased appetite, and abdominal pain, Dillon said."The committee considered all these factors and concluded that ... ipilimumab could not be considered a cost effective use of NHS resources," he said.NICE said this decision was initial draft guidance and would be open for consultation -- including input from the manufacturer, healthcare professionals and members of the public -- before being issued to the NHS.Patient support group Factor 50 and a leading UK skin cancer charity SKCIN said Yervoy was the "breakthrough that patients and clinicians... have been waiting for".They accused NICE of handing a "death sentence" to patients and urged it to reconsider its preliminary decision."Patients waiting for this decision were all hoping and praying that it would be favourable," they said in a joint statement. "They are completely shattered, but have vowed, in the time they have left, to try and counter the decision."

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UPDATE 1-Ubiquiti breaks US IPO drought amid Iran controversy

* Company violated U.S. law; sold to Iran, othersBy Clare BaldwinOct 13 (Reuters) - Wireless equipment maker Ubiquiti Networks Inc broke a two-month drought in the U.S. IPO market on Thursday pricing shares in its initial public offering at the low end of the expected range.The company and its owners sold 7.04 million shares for $15 each, raising $105.6 million. They had planned to sell 7 million shares for $15 to $17 each. Earlier on Thursday the company lowered its price range from $20 to $22 per share.Prior to Ubiquiti, the U.S. IPO market had been shut for two months. It closed in August for a traditional summer holiday, but then failed to reopen as concerns about Europe's debt crisis and a weak economic recovery in the United States made markets volatile.Yet even as Ubiquiti has been successful in completing its IPO, it faces a big challenge in addressing concerns about its corporate governance.Ubiquiti, whose shares will trade on Nasdaq under the stock symbol UBNT.O, makes wireless networking and video surveillance equipment. It said in its prospectus that certain of its products were sold to Iran, Cuba, Syria, the Sudan and North Korea and that some of its encryption components were sold without the appropriate export authorization.A review of Ubiquiti's sales to Iran by the Department of Commerce's Office of Export Enforcement earlier this year resulted in a warning letter, but no criminal or administrative prosecution or other penalties -- but Ubiquiti remains under review by the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.Depending on the outcome of that review, Ubiquiti could face fines, lose its ability to export and be referred for criminal prosecution, it said in its IPO prospectus.Seventy percent of Ubiquiti's fiscal 2011 revenue came from overseas. U.S. relations with Iran are particularly sensitive right now because of an alleged attempt by Iran to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador in Washington."Our lack of sufficient familiarity was largely due to our lean corporate infrastructure, the inexperience of our management team in these matters and the fact that our products are manufactured outside the United States and most of our products never enter the United States," the company wrote in its IPO prospectus.The company said it did not mean to violate U.S. law. In fiscal 2010, it recorded an expense of $1.6 million for export compliance, which it said is its best estimate of its exposure to fines. It said its business could suffer if any actual fines are materially different.Ubiquiti was not available for comment.Nick Einhorn, an analyst at Connecticut-based IPO research and investment house Renaissance Capital, said Ubiquiti's sales to countries such as Iran were unlikely to be a deal-breaker."The numbers that the company has shown so far are impressive and definitely enough to interest investors," Einhorn said. "They've grown very quickly and have good operating margins."For the year ended June 30, Ubiquiti posted a net income attributable to common stockholders of $4.98 million on revenue of $197.87 million.SMALL OPERATIONAs of June 30, Ubiquiti had about 92 full time-equivalent employees in four offices globally. It has no direct sales force, but instead relies on distributors, resellers and original equipment manufacturers.Chief Executive Robert Pera is a former wireless engineer at Apple Inc . Other company executives currently include former Cushcraft Corporation/Laird Technologies engineers and a lawyer. The Chief Financial Officer is a former CFO at digital printing company Electronics for Imaging Inc.Ubiquiti said it first learned that its products could not be sold into Iran or other countries subject to U.S. embargo in March 2010, in connection with due diligence performed as part of a transaction with investor Summit Partners.One Ubiquiti distributor continued selling products to Iran after it was told not to and another was discovered doing so. Ubiquiti also continued to use incorrect export authorizations for its encryption components for a time after discovering the problem because it did not understand how to comply.Ubiquiti said it has since revised its distribution agreements, disabled software downloads in certain countries and obtained the appropriate paperwork for its encryption products.Most of the shares sold in the IPO were expected to come from Ubiquiti's owners. The company was only planning to issue 2.4 million new shares, the proceeds of which it said it would use to repay debt.When Ubiquiti cut its price range on Thursday, it said Board member John Ocampo, who owned less than 1 percent of the company, had indicated he was interested in purchasing stock in the IPO. That indication was nonbinding.The IPO's underwriters were led by UBS Investment Bank, Deutsche Bank Securities and Raymond James. The shares are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq on Friday under the symbol "UBNT."

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UPDATE 1-Innkeepers, Cerberus in tentative sale pact

The parties are confident the deal will get done, though it is not official and could still fall apart, the person said.The agreement would avoid a trial scheduled for next week over a decision by Cerberus and Chatham to walk away from a previous agreement to buy Innkeepers for $1.12 billion.The discounted purchase price would still be higher than the initial $971 million baseline or "stalking horse" bid offered by Five Mile Capital Partners and Lehman Ali Inc, a non-bankrupt unit of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc .Innkeepers declined to comment on Thursday. A spokesman for Cerberus did not return a call seeking comment.

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UPDATE 1-Innkeepers, Cerberus in tentative sale pact

The parties are confident the deal will get done, though it is not official and could still fall apart, the person said.The agreement would avoid a trial scheduled for next week over a decision by Cerberus and Chatham to walk away from a previous agreement to buy Innkeepers for $1.12 billion.The discounted purchase price would still be higher than the initial $971 million baseline or "stalking horse" bid offered by Five Mile Capital Partners and Lehman Ali Inc, a non-bankrupt unit of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc .Innkeepers declined to comment on Thursday. A spokesman for Cerberus did not return a call seeking comment.