Business & Finance
Song, the no-frills subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, will cease operations in May and some of its employees will lose their jobs, its bankrupt parent announced Friday. Chief executive Gerald Grinstein said Song's more popular features - notably video screens at each seat that offer live and on-demand programming, games, and music playlists - will be incorporated into longer-range Delta flights. Song flew mostly between the Northeast and such popular destinations as Florida, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, but critics say it never fully blunted the challenge of discount rivals such as Jet Blue, Air Tran, and Southwest.
The world's largest cellphone service provider, Vodafone, said it will pay $1.5 billion for a minority stake in Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd. of India. The latter is the No. 1 cellphone operator in India, which in turn is one of the world's largest untapped markets. Only about 6 percent of its 1.1 billion people are cellphone users. Vodafone previously owned a share of a small regional cellphone operator there but sold it three years ago because of limited potential for expansion.
Lenovo Inc., the Chinese computer builder that bought IBM Corp.'s PC division earlier this year for $1.75 billion, said it will build a 500,000-square-foot facility in Morris-ville, N.C., by early 2007. The complex, which will replace one in Raleigh-Durham's Research Triangle Park, will add 400 employees to the 1,820 currently working in the company's international division for research and design. Lenovo's US headquarters are in Purchase, N.Y., near IBM's executive offices.
Tenneco Automotive Inc., a leading maker of exhaust and ride-control systems for cars and trucks, is dropping "Automotive" from its name, it announced Friday. The Lake Forest, Ill., company said the move "better represents the expanding number of markets" it serves, such as China and eastern Europe. Among Tenneco's brands are Monroe and Sensa-Trac shock absorbers and Walker mufflers.
Tecumseh Products Co., a builder of engines for lawn and garden equipment, as well as power trains, pumps, and compressors, said it will close its Corinth, Miss., plant early next year. Some of those operations will be transferred to Dunlap. Tenn., but 280 employees will lose their jobs. The company is based in Tecumseh, Mich.
