Business digest

KNIGHT RIDDER LOWERS OUTLOOK: Knight Ridder Inc. reduced its full-year profit forecast of $2.91 a share by about 10 cents, blaming a deepening slump in advertising sales. October revenue for the publisher of the Miami Herald and other newspapers dropped 12 percent from a year ago. Total ad revenue fell 14 percent, while revenue from employment ads plunged 50 percent last month. Knight Ridder's shares fell $1 to $60.80.

KRISPY KREME RISES: Shares of Krispy Kreme rose 4 percent a day after the doughnut chain said third-quarter profit soared 68 percent. Krispy Kreme earned $6.5-million, or 11 cents per share, in the quarter ended Oct. 28. Revenue climbed 28 percent to $99.8-million. The company also raised its forecast for the year to 44 cents a share, 1 cent above Wall Street's expectations. Krispy Kreme rose $1.70 to $40.50.

WARNACO CEO OUT: Longtime Warnaco Group Inc. chairwoman and CEO Linda Wachner has been ousted from the now-bankrupt company. Wachner will be "moving toward new business ventures" and will be replaced as CEO by Antonio Alvarez Jr., a corporate turnaround specialist. The company also said that Stuart Buchalter has been elected to succeed Wachner as chairman of the board, effective immediately. During her reign at Warnaco, Wachner transformed the staid company into an apparel empire, whose products range from Calvin Klein jeans to Olga bras and Speedo swimsuits. But since mid-1998, the company's business has unraveled. A high profile dispute with Calvin Klein, settled in January, also hurts its businesses.

MEDIABROWSER SHUTS DOWN: A Largo company that hoped to sell ads on specialty Web browsers has filed to liquidate its assets and has shuttered its operations. MediaBrowser.com, which organized in January 2000, developed browsers for Nintendo's Pokemon, NASCAR driver Rusty Wallace and more than 200 university sports teams but was unable to generate sufficient ad revenue. The company had been financed through private investments of about $2.2-million, much of that from Mike Siewruk, MediaBrowser's chief executive. Siewruk, an entrepreneur for the past 20 years, sold a Clearwater software business in the late 1990s for $42-million, but failed with his next venture, NetVital Technologies Inc., which closed in less than a year. At its peak, MediaBrowser had 30 employees.

MORE CUTS AT AT&T, REPORTS SAY: AT&T Corp. might shed as many as 20,000 jobs by early next year, with half of that amount already eliminated so far this year, the Wall Street Journal reported. The long-distance company declined to comment on the report, or a similar account from Reuters that said firings could reach 13,000, including 9,000 positions already eliminated. A spokeswoman wouldn't confirm the number of job cuts AT&T has made this year and wouldn't say how many jobs the company planned to eliminate over the next several months. AT&T shares rose 21 cents to $17.19.

TECH DATA GETS RECOGNITION: Tech Data Corp. has been named No. 3 on Business Week's list of the 100 best-performing information technology companies. The Clearwater computer reseller placed 64th on the magazine's Info Tech 100 listing a year ago. The rankings are based on revenues, revenue growth, return on equity, total return and profits. Tech Data was praised by the magazine for its ability to track customer costs and increase high-margin business. The magazine said Tech Data expects to earn $30-million on revenues of $4.3-billion for the quarter ended Oct. 31. The company will release third quarter results on Nov. 26.

CHANGES AT Z-TEL: Z-Tel Technologies said executive Eduard Mayer has left the company. Mayer, vice president of strategic alliances since July 1999 and a Z-Tel board member, has left to pursue other interests, the Tampa telecom company said in a news release. Separately, James Corman, Z-Tel consumer services president, is leaving the company to work full time with a charity organization he founded. He will be replaced by Michael Slauson, currently vice president of customer care. Z-Tel shares rose 10 cents to $1.20.

MICROSOFT BIAS SUIT: A federal judge denied class-action status to current and former Microsoft Corp. employees who alleged the software company discriminates against black and female employees. U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman in Seattle said Microsoft's "managerial system is not inherently flawed" and "statistical data belies the existence of any class-wide pattern of discrimination." The year-old lawsuit, filed on behalf of former employee Monique Donaldson, seeks unspecified damages and a court order prohibiting the allegedly wrongful practices.

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