Business & Finance

Micron Technology Inc. is cutting about 1,800 jobs, or 10 percent of its global workforce, the world's second-largest memory chipmaker said. The company is seeking to reduce costs after racking up losses of $1.5 billion over the past two years. Micron is based in Boise, Idaho, but also has facilities in Utah, Virginia, Japan, Italy, and Singapore.

The year's third bond sale - this one for $2.47 billion, a European record - was announced by deeply indebted German utility Deutsche Telekom. Reports said the issue already is oversubscribed and may have to be made larger still. Buyers will be required to trade their bonds for shares in the former monopoly, which owes $68.6 billion. Deutsche Telekom, the world's third-largest phone company, also sold $536 million worth of bonds Jan. 16 and $1 billion worth Jan. 29.

AltaVista, a pioneer Internet search engine, fetched just $140 million in a sale to Overture Services Inc. of Pasadena, Calif. The latter makes its money by selling preferred advertising placement on search engines. Four years ago, high-tech holding company CMGI Inc. of Andover, Mass., paid $2.3 billion for an 81 percent stake in AltaVista. But since then, it has been eclipsed by such rivals as Google and Yahoo, forcing it to scrap plans for an initial public offering of stock and to cut its staff from 750 to 250 workers.

Last year was "the most difficult and worst" in the history of HVB (HypoVereinsbank), which lost just under $1 billion, its chief executive reported. He blamed the red ink on bad loans, which almost doubled. Germany's second-largest financial institution will cancel shareholder dividends for the first time since World War II, he said. By contrast, HVB posted a $1.1 billion profit in 2001.