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World Business Quick Take

■ Aviation
Northwest's shares dive
Northwest Airlines Corp shares plunged nearly 12 percent as investors in the nation's fourth-largest carrier were buffeted by several pieces of bad news. A US$50 each-way fare increase aimed at business travelers failed when other carriers failed to match it. Regulatory filings show that Northwest's chairman, Gary Wilson, has now sold nearly 60 percent of his stake in the company, based in Eagan, Minnesota. And the Wall Street Journal highlighted Northwest's labor troubles in Monday's editions and reported the airline could be close to bankruptcy. Northwest shares fell US$0.75, or 11.9 percent, to close at US$5.58 in Monday trading on the NASDAQ Stock Market, after falling as low as US$5.05 earlier in the day.

■ Internet
AOL expands free content
America Online Inc is making its content available to a wider audience for free in hopes of gaining more online real estate to sell to advertisers, said James Bankoff, AOL's executive vice president for programming and products. The company last week formally launched a free Web-based e-mail service, offering its instant-messaging users accounts with "AIM.com" address. AOL is also offering to forward e-mail from abandoned AOL.com accounts to AIM. "We at least keep them in the family," Bankoff said. A test version of a new AOL.com portal, which Bankoff demonstrated on Monday, is expected to become available on June 21. AOL plans a formal launch next month, coupled with advertising campaigns online, on radio and in print.

■ Banking
Deutsche mulls acquisitions
Deutsche Bank AG is considering new acquisitions within Germany and beyond as the nation's biggest bank seeks to add more customers, chief executive Josef Ackermann said in an interview published yesterday. Ackermann said in an interview with the business daily Handelsblatt that Deutsche Bank was "ready to take over banks in markets in which it is already present and in new markets -- for instance in an emerging market." His remarks came a day after Unicredito Italiano SpA unveiled the details behind its euro15.4 billion (US$18.7 billion) takeover of HVB Group AG, Germany's second-biggest bank. It would be Europe's largest cross-border banking deal and create a dominant player in the former communist east. Ackermann said Unicredito's entrance into Germany would be helpful. He also said that his bank was looking at expanding into China.

■ Labor Market
Swiss firms pessimistic
Swiss employers are the most pessimistic in a 23-country survey about prospects for the labor market in the third quarter, according to Manpower Inc. Swiss employers expect the country's job market to stagnate through September, while companies in the other countries of Europe, Asia and America that took part in the quarterly survey all expect an improvement, the world's second-largest provider of temporary workers said yesterday on its Web site. Eighty-five percent of the Swiss companies surveyed expect no change in employment in the third quarter, according to Manpower. Six percent expect the employment situation to worsen and the same proportion foresee an improvement. Zurich, home to some of Switzerland's biggest companies including UBS AG and Zurich Financial Services AG, is the most pessimistic region.

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