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World Business Quick Take

■ Printing
HP gets Ford contract
Hewlett-Packard Co got an agreement to provide printing products and services for Ford Motor Co, replacing Xerox Corp, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site, citing an unidentified Hewlett-Packard spokeswoman. The value of the agreement is higher than the US$100 million printing contract Hewlett-Packard has with Boeing Co, which is the company's largest disclosed agreement to provide printing technology, the newspaper said. Palo Alto, California-based Hewlett-Packard didn't disclose the exact value of the Ford contract, the newspaper said.

■ Computer makers
Gateway to cut jobs
Gateway Inc, a personal computer maker that has lost US$1.84 billion in the past three years, will reduce its workforce to "mid-5,000" from the current 7,400. "We clearly have some additional work" to reduce the number of employees, chief financial officer Roderick Sherwood III said on a Webcast at the Morgan Stanley Semiconductor & Systems Conference in Dana Point, California. The cuts will come after the acquisition of eMachines Inc, which may be after March 8, he said.

■ Airlines
Budget carrier in name tiff
Singapore's new no-frills carrier has already hit turbulence over its name, months before it is due to take flight. Lawyers working for Tiger Airways, a joint venture between Singapore Airlines and the founders of Ireland's Ryanair, are in talks with a British company that claims the international carrier stole its name, Singapore Airlines spokesman Rick Clements said yesterday. The Gloucestershire, England-based Tiger Airways offers flying lessons in vintage biplanes, and takes its name from its specialty in flying the Tiger Moth, a 1930s open cockpit, two-seater plane, the company's Web site said.

■ China
Greenspan gives warning
China should shore up its "quite weak" banking system to prevent instability as it moves toward floating the yuan's value against the dollar, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told a US senator. China needs to improve banks' internal controls, risk management and lending decisions, in part by giving local managers more training and authority, Greenspan wrote. The Fed chairman was responding to questions posed at a Feb. 12 hearing by Richard Shelby, chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.

■ NYSE
Grasso facing suit
New York state's attorney general is preparing to sue former New York Stock Exchange head Dick Grasso and his former board members over nearly US$120 million in retirement benefits Grasso received, a source familiar with the case said Monday. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office is in settlement talks with Grasso and board members, but was "leaning toward" bringing a lawsuit if the negotiations fail, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The suit would accuse Grasso and the board members who approved the lavish pay package of failing in their fiscal responsibilities under state non-profit organization law, the source said. Grasso left office Sept. 17 amid a public furor over his US$187.5 million in retirement benefits and deferred compensation.

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