Business & Finance

The long-awaited announcement is expected Monday in Parliament on whether Britain will drop its own currency, the pound, in favor of the euro. All indications Sunday were that Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown will rule out the switch, at least until the pressures associated with the next national election - which must be held by mid-2006 - cause a change in dynamics. Reports in Sunday's London newspapers said Brown will offer the findings of 18 separate studies on his government's five tests for membership in the European Union single currency, concluding that conditions are not yet right. The pound was trading at $1.66 Sunday; the euro at $1.17. One pound was worth 1.42 euros.

PeopleSoft Inc. flatly rejected a $5.1 billion hostile offer by larger business software rival Oracle Corp. PeopleSoft chief Craig Conway, who worked for Oracle until 1993 and has publicly feuded with his ex-employer, called the bid Friday "atrociously bad behavior" designed to derail his company's just-announced merger with another rival, J.D. Edwards & Co. Oracle is based in Redwood City, Calif., and PeopleSoft in Pleasanton, Calif.

NBC won the rights to televise the 2010 Winter Games and 2012 Summer Games, signing a $2.2 billion deal Friday with the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne, Switzerland. NBC outbid rival networks ABC-ESPN and Fox to extend its Olympic coverage to seven consecutive games over 12 years. ABC has televised 10 Olympics and CBS five.

Oilfield services giant Halliburton said it is delaying the bankruptcy filings of two main subsidiaries until the third quarter while it finalizes details of their reorganization. The filings by Kellogg Brown & Root and Dresser Industries are part of a $4 billion settlement reached in December to resolve all present and future asbestos claims, estimated at about 300,000 nationwide.