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Business Quick Take

■ AUTOMOBILES

Chrysler may cut products

Chrysler LLC president Jim Press said on Friday the automaker's rejuvenation plan could include jettisoning some US dealers and cutting its product lineup by as much as half. Press, speaking to industry executives at the JD Power and Associates Automotive Roundtable in San Francisco, said that Chrysler's management team had not yet decided the severity of the cuts. The consolidation, under a plan called Project Genesis to align the Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge brands under one roof, should occur within the next four to five years, Press said. "There are no numbers. We don't know how many models we're going to have. No one knows that," he said.



■ COMPUTERS

Dell drops AMD online sales

Dell has stopped selling many computers with processors from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) on its Web site, although it will continue selling some through retailers. The news was a setback for AMD, which wooed Dell for years before breaking the computer maker's exclusive supplier relationship with Intel in 2006. Dell.com will continue to offer desktop and notebook computers and servers with AMD processors for business customers and a single consumer-oriented desktop model with an AMD processor. AMD spokesman John Taylor said the firm could benefit from Dell's push into retail sales, and the shift at Dell.com would not have "a near-term significant financial impact on AMD."



■ INTERNET

Yahoo board discusses bid

A week after Yahoo learned that it would be the target of a US$44.6 billion hostile bid by Microsoft, the company's board met on Friday to consider its options, a person briefed on the meeting said. The directors listened to a series of presentations from Yahoo's management and its bankers, who argued that the company was worth more than what Microsoft had offered. The board was also presented with various options for maintaining Yahoo's independence, the person said. One possibility is a search-related joint venture with Google. Lawyers at the meeting discussed the antitrust implications of such a tie-up, the person said. They also discussed how to press Microsoft to increase its bid.



■ AVIATION

Air Canada being wooed

Private equity players and pension funds have approached Air Canada's parent, ACE Aviation Holdings, touting a possible buy of Canada's top airline, ACE chief executive Robert Milton said on Friday. However, he refused to identify the potential bidders for ACE's 75 percent stake in Air Canada, which ACE is looking to divest. "We've now been approached by private equity, by pension funds," Milton said. Given the wave of consolidation in the US airline industry, "I don't think it's inconceivable that Air Canada could be part of it," he said. In the US, Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines were discussing merger, while United Airlines and Continental Airlines are in early merger talks.



■ MACROECONOMY

IMF warns of slow growth

IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said emerging economies were "not immune" from slowing global growth. "What has been said about decoupling is probably much too exaggerated," Strauss-Kahn said yesterday in Tokyo on the sidelines of a G7 meeting. "Emerging economies are not immune at all." The IMF chief said he told G7 finance ministers and central bank governors that monetary policy should be seen as "the first line of defense" in response to weaker growth in the world economy. He said there was also "room for fiscal stimulus" in order to address problems resulting from the US subprime meltdown.



■ BANKING

Government favors Muto

The Japanese government is planning to nominate Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Toshiro Muto as the next head of the central bank, the Yomiuri Shimbun said yesterday. Toshihiko Fukui, the 72-year-old Bank of Japan governor who helped pilot the economy out of a decade-long slump, must stand down when his five-year term ends on March 19. The government may nominate Muto to parliament as the next bank governor as soon as next week, the Yomiuri Shimbun said, without citing sources. He would need the approval of the opposition-controlled upper house of parliament to become head of the central bank.



■ TRAVEL

Snow hits businesses

China's travel agencies may lose 70 percent of their forecast sales during the Lunar New Year holidays because of snowstorms that disrupted people's travel plans, Xinhua news agency said. The biggest snowfalls since 1954 caused direct economic losses of about 80 billion yuan (US$11 billion), toppled 300,000 homes and damaged 90 million hectares of crops in 19 provinces and regions. More than 10,000 group tours were canceled nationwide, Xinhua said, citing Wang Zhifa, vice director of China's National Tourism Bureau. About 50 percent of trips from Beijing to southern China were also canceled, Xinhua said.



■ LCD GLASS

Corning upbeat on demand

Corning Inc, the biggest maker of glass for flat-panel display screens, yesterday reiterated its first-quarter forecast, saying a slowing US economy would not hamper demand for high-definition televisions. Profit, leaving out costs such as a legal settlement, will climb to US$0.41 to US$0.43 a share, the Corning, New York-based company said in a statement released before the company's investor meeting. Revenue will reach US$1.59 billion to US$1.62 billion, it said. The firm also forecast a 25 percent to 30 percent increase in total LCD glass demand this year. "Although we are not recession-proof, we have not seen any signs of a slowdown in our businesses," chief financial officer James Flaws said.



■ INDONESIA

Growth forecast trimmed

The economy faces greater "downside" risks stemming from record oil prices and a global economic slowdown, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said yesterday. The economy will grow between 6.4 percent and 6.5 percent this year, lower than the 6.8 percent expansion target predicted earlier this year, she said. "We are working on a new forecast taking into account the prospect of global recession and the effect of higher commodity prices," Sri Mulyani said in an interview in Tokyo. "Higher growth is becoming even more difficult.
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