Business & Finance
Danaher Corp., the maker of Sears Craftsman tools as well as sensors, switches, and control systems, offered up to $5.5 billion in cash and stock for Houston-based rival Cooper Industries. With the assumption of debt, the package could be worth as much as $7 billion, reports said. The bid comes two years after Cooper rejected an offer to merge the companies. Danaher is based in Washington.
Lucent Technologies said it plans to raise $1 billion in a sale of convertible preferred stock. Sources familiar with the details said Lucent will offer a dividend as high as 9 percent. The word came as Standard & Poor's cut the company's long-term credit rating for the third time this year, to "BB-minus," the third-highest junk grade. Lucent, struggling due to slow demand in the telecommunications sector, has laid off almost half its 106,000 workers and is selling its fiber-optic unit for $2.75 billion to Corning Inc. and Japan's Furukawa Electric.
In layoff developments:
Another 4,000 jobs will be eliminated and its planes will be reconfigured to increase economy seating and eliminate business class, Air Canada announced. The carrier, which reported a $70 million loss in the second quarter, said the layoffs would begin in November. Late last year, Air Canada said it would cut 3,500 jobs.
Daiwa Bank and two others in Japan said they'll form a holding company by next March to compete with the nation's four largest lenders. But the move also will result in the loss of 3,000 jobs and closure of 140 branches.
Up to 872 workers will be asked to take a severance package or find different jobs in Sun Microsystems, the company said. Earlier, the Palo Alto, Calif., computer and software maker obliged its staff to take a week off in a cost-cutting move.
