Business & Finance

American Airlines chief executive Donald Carty cautioned, "We are not out of the woods yet," despite the agreement by the carrier's flight attendants to hundreds of millions of dollars in pay and benefits concessions. The issue, on which a bankruptcy filing hinged, was decided Wednesday by a vote of 10,761 to 9,652, after it appeared to go down to defeat in a controversial first ballot. But it also came amid revelations that the carrier's parent, AMR Corp., had funded a supplemental pension trust for 45 senior executives that would protect some of their retirement income in the event of bankruptcy - a matter that analysts said was likely to anger rank-and-file union members. American had said it needed $1.8 billion in givebacks from its unionized workers to stave off a bankruptcy filing.

By an overwhelming margin, shareholders of the P&O Princess cruise line approved the company's $5.5 billion takeover by rival Carnival Corp. The vote Wednesday in London was 99.7 percent "yes" and was the final step in a 17-month struggle that began with P&O Princess agreeing to a merger with Royal Caribbean Cruises.

The developer of Pac-Man and other video games, Namco Ltd., offered merger terms to struggling rival Sega Corp. Details were not immediately available, and there was no indication when Sega's board might reach a decision, reports said. Sega, once the world's third-largest seller of video consoles, gave up that business two years ago as sales slipped. Lately, it has been discussing a merger with Sammy Corp., a manufacturer of pinball machines and other amusement arcade attractions. All three companies are Japanese.

Maytag Corp., a leading maker of home appliances, said it will cut 500 jobs by the end of June as the ratings service Standard & Poor's placed it on a credit watch. Maytag is based in Newton, Iowa, and markets products under the Amana, Hoover, and Jenn-Air brands as well as its own.