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World Business Quick Take

■ Engineering
Siemens to eliminate jobs
Siemens AG, Germany's largest engineering company, has decided to slash more than 1,000 jobs at its Munich-based headquarters to help cut costs, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung weekly.
At least 500 jobs may be eliminated at Siemens' Com division, the newspaper reported in a preview of an article to be published in yesterday's edition, citing no one. Further cost cuts may also hit its mobile-phone business. Siemens' fixed-line phone business may also suffer several hundred job cuts while other reductions may hurt mobile-phone production at the Kamp-Lintfort and Bocholt factories, the paper said. Peter Gottal, a Siemens spokesman, wasn't immediately available for comment. Siemens is considering options for its unprofitable mobile-phone business and intends to announce a plan by the end of the month.

■ Software
Oracle wraps up purchase
Oracle Corp completed its US$10.3 billion purchase of PeopleSoft Inc, creating the world's second-biggest maker of business-management software. The transaction was completed on Saturday, Bob Wynne, a spokesman for Redwood, California-based Oracle, said yesterday. Investors had handed over 97 percent of PeopleSoft stock, more than the 90 percent needed to complete the acquisition. PeopleSoft capitulated in December, accepting Oracle chief executive officer Lawrence Ellison's sweetened US$26.50 a share offer to end an 18-month battle that pitted PeopleSoft against its investors and led to the ouster of its chief executive. The combination vaults Oracle from No. 3 in the US$22 billion market for programs that handle tasks such as payroll and human resources.

■ Retail
FamilyMart looks overseas
FamilyMart Co intends to more than double the number of its stores overseas in four years as growth in the Japanese convenience store market slows, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said. The company plans to open stores in South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, China and the US, aiming to bring the total number overseas to 11,770 by March 2009, the newspaper said today. Tokyo-based FamilyMart aims to generate more than 20 percent of its pretax profit from overseas by March 2009, compared with an estimated 4 percent for the year ending March, the paper said. It plans to increase its proportion of convenience stores abroad to 60 percent from 40 percent, the paper said. FamilyMart, Japan's third-largest convenience store, last week raised its sales forecast for the year ending Feb. 28 by 1.4 percent to ?254.2 billion (US$2.43 billion).

■ Automobiles
Mitsubishi inks new deals
Troubled Japanese carmaker Mitsubishi Motors has inked deals to supply its autos to Japan's Nissan Motor and French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen from next year, a news report said yesterday. Mitsubishi will sell mini-vehicles to Nissan and sports utility vehicles to Peugeot on an original equipment manufacturing (OEM) basis, the Yomiuri Shimbun said. Mitsubishi, the fourth-largest Japanese automaker and hit by defect cover-ups and sagging sales, will include the OEM deals as part of its new revitalization plan to be released later this month, the newspaper said. Peugeot has said it had no alliance plans and no active cooperation project with Mitsubishi.

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