Business & Finance

Not content with his resignation as AOL Time Warner chairman, some shareholders may try to remove Steve Case and two allies from posts on the board as well, the Financial Times reported. The effort would come at the company's annual meeting in May and isn't likely to succeed, the paper said, but could prove embarrassing for Case and for the troubled online and media giant.

A joint venture that would offer digital music downloads on the Internet and in stores was to be announced by six leading retail music chains. Participants in the venture, known as Echo, include Best Buy Co., the top consumer electronics retailer in the US, as well as Tower Records, Virgin Entertainment Group, Wherehouse Music, Hastings Entertainment, and Trans World Entertainment Corp., which operates FYE and Strawberries stores, among others. It's the latest response by an industry hit by declining CD sales. Wherehouse filed for bankruptcy last week.

General Motors, along with Isuzu, the Japanese maker of trucks, is "exploring the possibilities" of a joint venture as early as this summer to build heavy-duty vehicles in China, the Financial Times reported. Citing the Tokyo newspaper Nihon Keizi, it said if such a venture is ultimately decided upon, it would be in partnership with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. and that GM and Isuzu would take about a 40 percent stake. Isuzu has been building light trucks in China since 1985.