Business Today

BANK OF AMERICA PROBLEM: A glitch affected the accounts of thousands of Bank of America customers in Florida and Tennessee late Thursday and early Friday. The bank said the affected customers use "automatic clearing house" postings such as direct payroll deposits or automatic investments to a mutual fund. Some customers had transactions posted twice into their accounts; other customers did not receive any deposits when they were supposed to be posted. Bank spokeswoman Lisa Gagnon said the software-related problem was triggered by two sets of electronic postings that ran out of sequence. All customer accounts were made whole by 11 a.m. Friday, Gagnon said, and any fees caused by the error are being reimbursed by the bank.

HILL-DONNELLY EXPANSION: The new parent of Hill-Donnelly Directory of Tampa plans to quickly expand operations for the maker of cross-reference directories. Info-USA of Omaha, Neb., which bought Hill-Donnelly in June for $1.8-million, said this week it is paying $1.6-million to acquire another city directory business, City Publishing Co. of Independence, Kan. City Publishing's Kansas office, which employs 60 people, will be shut down and the company will be folded into Hill-Donnelly's Tampa operation. Last year, City Publishing had revenue of $5-million. Hill-Donnelly produces more than 230 cross-reference directories in major U.S. markets. With the addition of City Publishing, it should be able to increase directory markets by 50 percent, Hill-Donnelly president Lee Hill III said in a statement.

RULES ON PHONE RATES: Telephone companies would have to notify customers before changing their rates or terms of service under a proposal that was made by the state Office of Public Counsel and has been endorsed by the staff of the state Public Service Commission. The intention is to protect consumers from unannounced rate hikes, particularly by long-distance carriers. The PSC is scheduled to vote on the matter Oct. 1.

QWEST MAY SELL WIRELESS UNIT: Qwest Communications International Inc., seeking to reduce $26.3-billion in debt, may sell its mobile-telephone business to Verizon Wireless Inc. for as much as $1-billion, Bloomberg News reported, quoting anonymous sources it said were familiar with the talks. Qwest, the biggest local-phone company in 14 western U.S. states, is selling assets after reporting nine straight quarterly losses. Alltel Corp., a rural-phone provider in the Southeast and Midwest, also has considered buying the business, Bloomberg News reported, quoting an anonymous source who it said had knowledge of the matter. "Will we sell the wireless business?" Qwest chief executive Richard Notebaert said at an investor conference in New York this week. "At the right price, yes."

CARMAKER EXPANDS IN ASIA: DaimlerChrysler AG is paying more than $1.1-billion for stakes in commercial vehicles businesses being spun off by Japan's Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co., a move intended to strengthen the German-American automaker's position in the growing Asian market. DaimlerChrysler said Friday that it will buy a 43 percent stake of the Mitsubishi spinoff, to be called Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corp., for about $750-million. The company also will exercise an option to purchase a 50 percent share in the joint venture with Hyundai, a deal valued at around $395-million.

ALCATEL SHEDDING MORE WORKERS: Struggling French phone-equipmentmaker Alcatel said Friday it will shed an additional 10,000 employees, about 12 percent of its work force, over the next 15 months. Once implemented, the cuts will mean that Alcatel will have shed nearly half of its work force in just three years. Alcatel's downsizing is one of the biggest in European corporate history. Alcatel said it now expects to have around 60,000 employees by the end of 2003. Europe's biggest maker of fixed-line telecommunications equipment had 113,000 employees at the end of 2000. Regine Coqueran, a company spokeswoman in Paris, said Alcatel was unable to provide details on where the new job cuts would come from.

HONDA MOTORCYCLE RECALL: Honda Motor Co. will recall 21,395 motorcycles in the United States and Europe because of defects, the company said Friday. Certain models of the Silverwing motorcycle manufactured between October 2001 and August 2002 have defective rear wheel spokes that could fracture if the bike repeatedly hits potholes, the company said in a release. The recall affects 2,509 Silverwings sold in the United States and 600 in the United Kingdom, Honda spokeswoman Yuriko Yabe said. The remainder were sold throughout Europe. No injuries were reported.

IPO DELAYED: The market will have to wait a little longer for its first IPO since mid August. Medical device company LipoScience Inc., which was expected to price its initial public offering Thursday and begin trading Friday, will not price until Monday, according to lead underwriter Merrill Lynch & Co. LipoScience of Raleigh, N.C. wants to sell 5-million shares at $14 to $16 each. LipoScience's offering, like many other recent deals, faced some pressure from skeptical shareholders, who've lately shown an unwillingness to purchase new stock.

NATURAL-GAS FUTURES FALL: Natural-gas futures fell as doubts arose over whether Hurricane Isidore will disrupt production at offshore platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Prices turned lower after rising on hurricane concerns this morning, partly because of "a story floating around that a meteorologist said the storm might turn south," said Gerry Saccente, a gas trader at ABN Amro Inc. in New York. "But the fact is they don't know where it's going to go."

ELLISON QUITS APPLE BOARD: Software mogul Larry Ellison resigned from Apple Computer Inc.'s board Friday, in a move that analysts attributed to investors' demands for more vigilant directors. Ellison, the flamboyant chief executive of Oracle Corp., had attended less than 75 percent of Apple's board meetings during each of his five years as a director, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. No other Apple director missed as many meetings during that time. Ellison stepped down after concluding that his attendance record wouldn't improve in the upcoming months, given his duties at slumping Oracle and his upcoming bid to win the America's Cup yacht race.

Earnings

Carnival Corp.

The Miami cruise operator, the world's largest, said revenue was lower as the travel industry continued to recover from the effects of last year's terror attacks, but it benefited from a new Italian investment tax law.

-- Compiled from Times staff, wire and Bloomberg News reports.

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