Business & Finance

By Compiled from wire service reports by Robert Kilborn and Stephanie Cook

August 3, 2001

General Motors has offered $588 million for much - but not all - of bankrupt South Korean automaker Daewoo, a published report said. GM and its Italian partner, Fiat, have been discussing a purchase for 10 months and are believed to be the last foreign investors still interested in the deeply indebted company. But the Korea Economic Daily said it learned that the offer does not include Daewoo's main assembly plant at Pupyong - with a workforce of 7,300 people - despite pressure from the Seoul government and Daewoo's creditors. A GM spokesman could not be reached for comment.

In corporate layoff news:

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the world's largest professional-services company, has announced another round of job cuts, bringing its total for the year to "about 2,300," the Financial Times reported. Citing an internal PwC memo, the newspaper said the layoffs will come over the next 45 days in the company's US consultancy ranks.

ADC Telecommunications said it will cut another 2,500 jobs, bringing its total since November to 9,500. The Minnetonka, Minn.-based company also will close or consolidate facilities in Copenhagen, Denmark, and El Paso, Texas. ADC makes broadband connectivity equipment and provides network-management software and related services.

Chicken of the Sea will close the last full-time tuna-packing plant in the US, eliminating 250 jobs, the Los Angeles Times reported. The company will move its San Pedro, Calif., operation to American Samoa this fall. Chicken of the Sea is the nation's third-largest tuna processor. Control of the company was acquired last December by Thai Union International Inc.