Motorola Inc. announced another whopping round of layoffs Tuesday – 9,400 jobs, or more than 8 percent of its dwindling workforce – as it staggers toward the end of a fourth straight quarter in the red. The slumping technology giant said the cuts are necessary to return it to profitability, and insisted it is on track to do so in 2002.
Ford Motor Co. agreed Tuesday to pay $10.5 million to settle two class-action lawsuits accusing the automaker of discriminating against older, white men in the name of diversity. Roughly 620 current and former Ford employees could receive money, plaintiffs’ attorneys said. Some will get up to $100,000, minus attorney fees. The reverse-discrimination lawsuits claimed that Ford’s employee evaluation system favored diversity candidates, namely women and minorities, and that a disproportionate number of older, white men were given low grades, costing them raises or promotions. In settling, Ford admitted no wrongdoing.
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks dealt a major blow to a global economy that was already under severe strain and will result in the weakest economic performance in nearly a decade, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday. The 183-nation lending agency projected global growth of 2.4 percent for this year and next, down sharply from 4.7 percent in 2000. The United States, which entered its first recession in a decade in March, will grow by 1 percent this year and an even weaker 0.7 percent in 2002, the IMF forecast. The new projections were included in a special edition of its “World Economic Outlook.”
Best Buy Inc., the nation’s leading consumer electronics retailer, said its earnings surged 40 percent in the third quarter while rival Circuit City Group returned to profitability after a loss a year ago, benefiting from a new marketing campaign and a finely tuned selection of consumer electronics. Both companies’ results, announced Tuesday, beat Wall Street expectations.
Electronic products maker Toshiba Corp. is selling its U.S. chip manufacturing operation to Micron Technology, becoming the latest Japanese chip maker to stop producing the memory chips used in personal computers amid a recent plunge in prices. Toshiba said Tuesday it expects to complete the sale of Dominion Semiconductor, a wholly-owned subsidiary that makes dynamic random access memory chips in Manassas, Va., by the end of January. Terms were not disclosed.
Herald news services
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.