Business & Finance
The aviation and aerospace industries absorbed two new hits, as the deepest slump in their history grew worse:
AMR Corp., the parent of American Airlines, posted a third-quarter loss of $924 million, bringing its total of red ink for the year to almost $3 billion. An even larger loss is likely in the final quarter unless fares rise, company officials warned. AMR also announced it will take 42 jets out of service beginning early next year to save money on maintenance and that delivery of 34 new planes from Boeing will be deferred until at least 2006.
On the heels of news that it had lost a major order for new planes to European rival Airbus Industrie, Boeing announced a 43 percent drop in third-quarter earnings and scaled back expectations for next year's revenues by $2 billion. Meanwhile, the Seattle Times quoted a Boeing spokesman as saying that still more job cuts are "probable." Next week, the world's largest builder of planes is to issue the final notices to workers included in a previously announced round of 30,000 layoffs. Britain's EasyJet, a budget airline, snubbed Boeing late last week, awarding an order for up to 240 planes to Airbus Industrie.
Micron Technology, the world's second-largest maker of memory chips, said it and fellow suppliers are facing 21 class-action lawsuits over an alleged price-fixing scheme. In its annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Micron said the suits are related to an antitrust investigation launched by the Justice Department in June. Micron is based in Boise, Idaho.
Akamai Technologies Inc. said it is cutting its global work force 29 percent to 550 employees as part of a restructuring plan to improve profitability. The layoffs come as the software services provider, whose customers include America Online, Federal Express, and Yahoo, reported a net loss of $47.5 million in the third quarter. Akamai is based in Cambridge, Mass.
