In the Region
US Airways lowers redemption value of nonrefundable fares
US Airways Group Inc., flying under bankruptcy protection, moved yesterday to increase its revenue by making cheap, nonrefundable tickets lose their value when travelers miss their flights and try to redeem the tickets later.
The change means the No. 7 U.S. carrier no longer lets holders of nonrefundable tickets fly standby. The new rule, which takes effect immediately, applies mostly to business travelers who don't make their flights, knowing they can get credit for the ticket later.
Joining other major airlines, US Airways also said it will charge $25 - a $15 increase - if a passenger wants to use a paper ticket when an electronic ticket could have been used.
Carriers including Northwest Airlines Corp. and Continental Airlines Inc. charge fees to issue paper tickets as airlines try to stem losses totaling a record $7.3 billion last year and more than $3.8 billion in this year's first half. Corporate travel slid during the recession, and vacation travelers who have filled planes since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 refuse to pay higher fares.
Timonium's Grotech leads funding for N.C. company
Grotech Capital Group, a venture capital fund based in Timonium, has led a $45 million round of funding for a North Carolina maker of telecommunications equipment.
Hatteras Networks said yesterday that the financing increased total capital investment in the company to more than $73 million. The 2-year-old privately held company, based in Research Triangle Park, develops software and hardware to enable high-speed Ethernet broadband connections over the "last mile" of telecommunications networks.
Elsewhere
It's end of the line for Sony's Betamax video machines
Sony will stop manufacturing Betamax machines by year's end as the company refocuses its efforts on DVD and other technologies dominating the market, Sony spokeswoman Shoko Yanagizawa said.
The announcement marks the end of a 27-year run during which the brand sold 18 million units worldwide in a race against VHS technology from its archrival Victor Co., also known as JVC, to set the video format standard.
Betamax was first to market, hitting stores in 1975, and had global sales of 2.3 million units in 1984. But Sony's decision not to share its technology with rival companies proved to be fatal. Underdog VHS - short for "video home system" - took control of the market by the mid-1980s.
More than 6,000 apply for 150 Weirton Steel jobs
Weirton Steel Corp.'s effort two weeks ago to fill about 150 laborer and entry-level positions attracted more than 6,000 applicants.
The Weirton, W.Va., company said the applications came from job seekers as far away as Colorado and Wyoming. A higher than expected number of retirements prompted the rare hiring.
Weirton Steel President and Chief Executive Officer John Walker said yesterday that he was not surprised by the response. The jobs pay nearly $13 an hour.
He also said the deluge of applications shows that the U.S. steel industry's financial struggles are not over, despite tariffs imposed by President Bush in March on imported steel.
Boeing offers increase in pension to Machinists
Boeing delivered its "best and final" offer to the Machinists union yesterday, calling for a 20 percent pension increase by the contract's third year, a boost in the ratification bonus to 8 percent of a year's pay. The union said it was unsatisfactory.
The pension proposal would boost monthly payments from the current $50 per year of service to $60 over the life of the contract, increase wages up to 2.5 percent in subsequent years after the bonus in the first year and delay an increase in the employee share of health-insurance premium costs until 2004.
A union spokesman said the Machinists asked Boeing to extend the contract day to day while negotiations continue, but the company had not responded.
Navistar cuts to translate into about 1,100 layoffs
Navistar International Corp. said yesterday that the round of job cuts it detailed this month will result in about 1,100 layoffs over the next several weeks, with more planned by year's end.
The biggest cutbacks will be at its International Truck and Engine Corp. operations in Springfield, Ohio, where Navistar said most of the 750 to 800 recently announced layoffs will take effect Sept. 6. The Springfield cuts result from Navistar's decision to end production of heavy-duty trucks in the western Ohio city, reflecting continuing weak demand for new trucks.
Navistar also is laying off about 315 production employees from its Indianapolis engine plant effective Sept. 27.
Oxygen Media to cut two-thirds of Web staff
Oxygen Media said yesterday that it is laying off nearly two-thirds of the staff at its oxygen.com Web site and is scaling back the site's content because of difficult business conditions.
Twenty-nine of 44 employees at oxygen.com are expected to lose their jobs over the next three months, a spokeswoman said. The focus of oxygen.com will shift to promoting the Oxygen cable network rather than original content. Chat rooms are being phased out.
"The online side is simply not structured in a way that it can sustain itself economically," Geraldine Laybourne, Oxygen's chief executive and chairwoman, wrote in an e-mail to the staff.
GE subsidiary in bid to buy part of ABB Ltd.
A General Electric Co. subsidiary reportedly is in talks to buy part of ABB Ltd.'s leasing and financing business in a deal that could be worth up to $3.1 billion.
GE declined to comment on the report in yesterday's editions of The Wall Street Journal, and Zurich-based ABB said only that it was in talks with undisclosed parties about selling the business.
Ex-Boron official to pay in insider-trading case
A New Jersey man accused of improperly selling shares in the pharmaceutical services company he helped run will pay $533,686 to settle a case of insider trading brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
SEC officials said yesterday that they filed and simultaneously settled insider-trading charges against Michael W. Foti, 47, of Wayne, N.J. Foti was the chief financial officer of Boron LePore. He also was a consultant and member of the company's executive committee.
The SEC said Foti sold nearly 21,000 shares of company stock Feb. 2-3, 1999, after learning that Boron LePore was in financial trouble after losing its largest client, Glaxo Welcome. Foti avoided losing at least $244,985 when Boron LePore's shares dropped from about $31 to $17.50.
Jim Beam under fire for worker-break policy
Employees on the bottling line at the Jim Beam bourbon distillery in Clermont, Ky., are fuming about being limited to four breaks in each 8 1/2 -hour shift, only one of which can be unscheduled. Extra trips to the bathroom can result in reprimands. Workers with six violations can be fired.
The United Food and Commercial Workers union local said some of the 100 affected employees have soiled themselves because they were afraid to leave the line. Some wear protective undergarments, and others have feigned illnesses to go home and avoid getting violations.
Jim Beam Brands, based in Deerfield, Ill., said its policy strikes a balance between employees' physical needs and the company's productivity needs.
The state has slapped the distiller with a citation, but Jim Beam appealed. A hearing officer is expected to give a review commission his recommendation today on whether to sustain or overrule the citation. The commission's decision can be appealed in court.
This column was compiled from reports by Sun staff writers, the Associated Press and Bloomberg News.