Business: Business digest

UNITED SUSPENDS MERGER TEAM'S WORK: United Airlines has suspended the work of a team preparing for its proposed acquisition of US Airways as it awaits final regulatory approval. A spokesman said the decision reflects the fact that the airline is ready for the first 100 days of operations as an expanded airline rather than wavering commitment to the pending $11.6-billion cash-and-debt acquisition. The workers who spent the last nine months on the integration team are returning to their regular jobs and will resume merger-related work later.

IBM CEO TOUTS POSITIVE OUTLOOK: IBM chief executive Louis V. Gerstner said the current fright in the technology industry isn't as bad as it appears to be, and his company is set to prosper from a real boom in e-commerce. Gerstner asserted in his eighth annual "state-of-the-industry" report to investors Thursday that business investment in hardware and software grew a healthy 11.3 percent in the first quarter. IBM reported a 15 percent increase in first-quarter earnings.

CEOS RETIRING: PricewaterhouseCoopers said chief executive Jim Schiro, 56, will retire as soon as a successor is found. No reason was given by the accounting firm for Schiro's departure. Mandatory retirement age for the firm's partners is 60. The New York company said last month its consulting unit would fire as much as 8 percent of employees, and an additional 1,100 support staff jobs will be cut because of the slowing U.S. economy. Separately, Nortel Networks Corp. said chief executive John Roth will retire in April, and his top lieutenant, chief operating officer Clarence Chandran, resigned. Roth, 58, will assume Chandran's duties. Chandran was two months into a six- to 12-month medical leave to recuperate from surgery related to a 1997 stabbing in Singapore. Nortel, the largest maker of phone equipment, is eliminating 20,000 jobs by midyear and canceling product lines to trim costs.

WWF SHARES RISE AFTER XFL'S DEMISE: World Wrestling Federation Entertainment Inc. shares rose 7.9 percent after the entertainment company folded the money-losing XFL football league. Shares of WWF closed up $1.04 at $14.19 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange after touching $14.74 earlier. The stock had fallen 32 percent since the XFL's Feb. 3 debut. The WWF, which co-owned the XFL with NBC, folded the eight-team league because it wasn't turning a profit. The WWF said it will have losses of about $35-million on the XFL's first, and only, season.

APERIAN TO SELL DATA CENTERS: Aperian Inc. will sell its five Web-hosting data centers, including a year-old facility in downtown Tampa. Two weeks ago, Austin, Texas-based Aperian laid off one-third of its work force, including 11 of 18 employees in its Tampa data center. At the time, Ken Brasch, general manager in Tampa, told workers he was trying to raise $10-million to buy Aperian's data centers in Tampa, Atlanta and Dallas. Brasch did not return a call for comment, and Aperian executives declined to name potential buyers or speculate on a sale price. Aperian also is selling data centers in Phoenix and Austin.

RTI SHARES FALL AFTER FDA REQUEST: Shares of Regeneration Technologies Inc. have stumbled following a Food and Drug Administration request that the Florida company stop mixing cadaver body parts from multiple donors. The FDA told RTI, based near Gainesville, that its practice of processing tissue in a single batch raises a number of public health concerns. RTI's stock fell 15 percent on the news Thursday and an additional 2.5 percent Friday, to $11 a share.

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