Business & Finance

DaimlerChrysler postponed its board meeting for a week Monday amid reports that it isn't finished reconsidering its partnerships with major Asian automakers. The company is expected to announce within days that it will put its 10.5 percent stake in Hyundai Motor Co. of South Korea up for sale. Hyundai denied that it would buy back the stock, worth an estimated $1 billion, but a spokesman confirmed that the partners are discussing ways to turn their strategic alliance into "project-by-project cooperation." Such a sale would be the second move by DaimlerChrysler in less than two weeks involving an Asian car company. On April 23, it stunned the automotive world by announcing it would invest no more money in Mitsubishi Motors, Japan's struggling No. 4 automaker, in which it holds the largest block of shares. That decision caused a furor that led chief executive Jürgen Schrempp to offer to resign, but he won a vote of confidence from his board last Thursday. Mitsubishi's chief, Rolf Eckrodt, however, did resign.

Jay Grinney, a 20-year veteran of the healthcare industry, appears all but certain to be named to head troubled HealthSouth Corp., the largest US operator of rehabilitation clinics, The Wall Street Journal reported. It said the appointment could come as soon as this week. The company, based in Birmingham, Ala., has been operating with interim leadership since the indictment of founder and former chief executive Richard Scrushy on 85 counts of fraud last fall. Other HealthSouth executives have pleaded, or agreed to plead, guilty. Scrushy's case is scheduled to go to trial in August. If named to replace Scrushy, Grinney would leave HCA Inc., which operates almost 200 hospitals.