MetLife IPO Priced Mid-Range at $14.25 a Share

Credit Suisse First Boston priced 202 million shares of MetLife (MET) - Get Report at $14.25 each, within the expected range of $13 to $15. The company is in the process of converting to a publicly traded company from a mutual, owned by its policyholders. In addition to its IPO, MetLife is distributing 493.5 million shares to more than 9 million of its policyholders.

The offering is now expected to raise $2.5 billion, lower than the originally expected $6.1 billion based on a November filing in which the company had planned to sell 255 million shares at up to $24 each. The decision to reduce the offering came after early marketing research showed weaker-than-expected investor demand for life insurance issues, no matter how cute those

Snoopy ads are. (See "Offerings and stock actions" for more information on IPOs.)

Coca-Cola

(KO) - Get Report

said it will take a $400 million charge in the first quarter related to its operations in India. But CFO Gary Fayard also pointed out that the company had lowered its estimate of a pretax restructuring to be taken later this year, to $725 million from an earlier estimate of $800 million.

Coke is also reducing the estimated number of jobs it will cut in its restructuring, to 5,200 from 6,000 originally forecast in January. The restructuring is expected to be completed by the end of the month. Fayard said worldwide sales volume in the first quarter had grown by 3%.

In other postclose news (

earnings estimates from First Call/Thomson Financial; earnings reported on a diluted basis unless otherwise specified

):

Earnings/revenue reports and previews

Safety-Kleen

(SK)

said it will indefinitely delay the release of its second-quarter results because of an ongoing investigation into accounting irregularities at the troubled waste management company.

Mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures

Century Aluminum

(CENX) - Get Report

said it signed a letter of intent to acquire

Southwire's

Hawesville, Ky., aluminum reduction plant, which the company said will nearly double its size.

Creo Products

(CREO)

said it will acquire the digital preprint and print-on-demand assets of

Scitex

(SCIX) - Get Report

in exchange for 13.25 million Creo shares, valued at about $551 million.

Offerings and stock actions

Arch Communications

(APGR)

said its shareholders approved an increase of the number of authorized shares of common stock to 150 million shares from 65 million.

Hibbett Sporting Goods

(HIBB) - Get Report

set a buyback of up to 1 million shares.

J.P. Morgan

and

Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown

priced 3 million shares of doughnut maker

Krispy Kreme

(KREM)

at $21 each, above the estimated range of $18 to $20.

Navisite

(NAVI) - Get Report

said it suspended a secondary offering due to market conditions.

Lehman Brothers

priced 4.25 million shares of

Ulticom

(ULCM)

at $13 a share, the low end of the expected $13 to $15 range. Ulticom, a subsidiary of

Comverse Technology

(CMVT)

, provides networking signaling software for wireless, wireline and Internet communications services.

Miscellany

Oracle

(ORCL) - Get Report

CEO Larry Ellison said the company will enter the fast-growing market for caching Internet pages, adding to existing services that support e-commerce. Caching is the storing and handling of Web pages to improve speed and reliability.

U.S. Cellular

(USM) - Get Report

said it named John Rooney, 57, as its new CEO and president, effective April 10. Rooney succeeds Don Nelson, 66, who previously announced his intention to retire.