Business & Finance

Baby Bells SBC Communications and Verizon announced plans to eliminate 11,000 and 1,000 jobs, respectively. Verizon is the nation's top local phone-service company, with SBC, of San Antonio, Texas, in the No. 2 spot. Both cited pricing regulations for the cuts, which come amid fierce competition as local and long-distance providers increasingly try to enter each other's markets. Verizon's reductions, in New Jersey, are the third round this year in the state.

Delta Air Lines saidit was cutting another 1,500 jobs for flight attendants and warned that losses in the third quarter could reach $350 million – nearly twice its previous forecast. Delta, the nation's third-largest carrier, already has cut 10,000 positions as the industry faces a downturn due in part to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Last week airline executives, including Delta's, asked Congress for additional help to offset the costs related to stepped-up security and lost revenue. Otherwise, they warned of continued capacity and job reductions.

The Boston Celtics basketball team is being sold for $360 million. Boston venture capitalists Stephen Pagliuca and Wycliffe Grousbeck, along with Grousbeck's father, H. Irving Grousbeck, are buying the team from Paul Gaston. The deal announced Friday surpasses the price of the last two sales of NBA teams – $200 million for the Seattle Supersonics in 2001 and $280 million for the Dallas Mavericks the year before.