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2ND AIRLINE FLIES TAMPA TO TALLAHASSEE: Continental Express carrier Gulfstream International Airlines will begin nonstop flights between Tampa and Tallahassee Sept.8. Gulfstream will make four weekday round trips and two Sunday flights, using 19-seat turboprop aircraft. AirTran Airways stopped its Tampa-Tallahassee flights last month, leaving Delta Connection carrier Chautauqua Airlines as the only airline flying the route.
Z-TEL CAN CONTINUE SBC SUIT: A federal district court in Texas has ruled that Z-Tel Technologies Inc. can pursue an antitrust suit the upstart phone company filed against SBC Communications Inc. The suit, filed in 2003, alleges that San Antonio, Texas, SBC improperly used its muscle as a phone-providing monopoly to prevent Z-Tel from competing in that company's markets.
TIVO LAUNCHES MARKETING CAMPAIGN: TiVo Inc. unleashed a marketing campaign and price rebates Monday, marking the digital video recorder pioneer's most aggressive, and most critical, push yet to win subscribers and become profitable. The Alviso, Calif., company, whose technology records TV programs without videotape and lets users pause live TV and do instant replays, is offering $100 rebates for its own branded DVRs as well as several other devices that use TiVo's technology.
FEDEX TO BUY PARCEL DIRECT: FedEx Corp. agreed to buy Parcel Direct, which sorts and sends goods ordered from catalogs and on the Internet, for $120-million to offer customers a low-cost option for shipping packages to homes. FedEx, the largest overnight package-delivery company, will pay cash for the unit of closely held Quad/Graphics Inc. of Sussex, Wis. FedEx said in a statement that it expects to finish the purchase before November and doesn't expect Parcel Direct to have much effect on fiscal 2005 financial results.
DELTA DRAINS RESERVES: Delta Air Lines Inc. said Monday it is burning through cash at a faster pace than expected - $744-million in the first six months of the year - and will file for bankruptcy protection without major cost reductions, including concessions from pilots. Though it has previously warned that bankruptcy was possible, the Atlanta carrier's quarterly report to the Securities and Exchange Commission was the strongest signal yet that the nation's No.3 carrier is close to insolvency. The carrier also revealed that it is giving its former finance chief free flights for life in exchange for consulting services.
BRITISH AIRWAYS RAISES FUEL SURCHARGE: British Airways reported a profit of $128.8-million on Monday for the three months ended June30, in contrast to a loss of $116-million a year earlier. Meanwhile, it increased its fuel surcharge to $11 a passenger, for long one-way trips, effective Wednesday, from $3.68. Virgin Airways followed suit Monday afternoon, raising its one-way fuel surcharge to $11.
SUMITOMO MITSUI BIDS FOR RIVAL BANK UFJ: UFJ Holdings Inc., Japan's fourth-largest lender, is considering a hostile bid from Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., to create the world's biggest lender. Sumitomo Mitsui's offer countered a July bid for Osaka-based UFJ from Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc.
PARMALAT SUES DEUTSCHE BANK: Parmalat Finanziaria SpA sued Deutsche Bank AG for $21-million and said it may seek further damages from work the bank did before Parmalat collapsed in December in Italy's biggest bankruptcy.