Business: Business today

JABIL HIRING ... IN JAPAN: Jabil Circuit will add about 250 employees to its work force in Japan under a manufacturing supply agreement announced Friday. The St. Peterburg contract manufacturer did not disclose terms of its agreement with Tokyo-based NEC Corp. Jabil will lease a facility in Gotemba, about 60 miles from Tokyo, and hire about 250 NEC workers to assemble transmission and studio equipment that is used in television and radio broadcasting. The deal is expected to close by July.

IBM LAYS OFF 1,000: International Business Machines Corp. has sent layoff notices to nearly 1,000 people in its global services and software groups in the United States. The world's leading provider of computer hardware said the layoffs reflected "skills rebalancing." The job cuts represent about 0.5 percent of IBM's combined software and technology services work forces, the company said. About 215,000 people work in the two units. IBM's total work force is around 320,000.

BUSINESSMAN ADMITS SWINDLING: A former New Smyrna Beach businessman pleaded guilty to swindling more than 400 people out of at least $15-million, but said he has no money to repay his victims. William B. Kane, former president of the medical alarm monitoring company SOS Industries, told a federal judge Thursday that he is broke."I am guilty," said Kane, 62, whose face was unshaven and hair unkempt as he sat before two U.S. marshals. "After 1995, I just didn't learn to say no. I should have just shut off the spigot." A civil lawsuit filed by several shareholders in July 2001 seeks repayment of more than $60-million lost in the eight-year scam, in which money from new investors was used to pay to earlier investors.

CHINA PEEKS AT THE SOURCE: Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, will let the Chinese government view the source code for its Windows operating system so it can better test security, company Chairman Bill Gates said. Chinese government officials have expressed concern that the Windows source code, the software's underlying instructions, contains flaws that could allow hackers or foreign spies to view national secrets. That has prompted China, like some other countries, to promote the rival Linux operating system, which lets users view and modify its source code. China joins Russia, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the U.K. in being allowed access to the Windows operating system code, Microsoft said in a statement.

STATE FARM POSTS $2.8-BILLION LOSS: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., the biggest U.S. auto and home insurer, lost $2.8-billion in 2002 as claims outstripped premiums and the company's stock investments declined. State Farm's loss narrowed from a record $5-billion the year earlier. The company, which is owned by policyholders, more than halved the underwriting loss in its homeowners unit to $1.6-billion in 2002.

NOT A BAD YEAR AT HP: Carly Fiorina, chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard Co., received a $2.9-million bonus for fiscal year 2002. Fiorina's 2002 bonus was partially due to her additional responsibilities after the close of the company's $18.6-billion acquisition of Compaq Computer Corp.

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