BUSINESS BRIEFS
United doubles fee to $50 for 2nd checked bag
Associated Press
CHICAGO — United Airlines yesterday doubled its fee for a second checked bag to $50, citing volatile fuel prices.
United, a unit of UAL Corp., said the $50 one-way fee would apply to tickets bought beginning Tuesday for travel beginning Nov. 10 in the U.S. or to or from Canada, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Travelers in first or business classes, "Premier" frequent fliers, and active-duty military personnel traveling on orders will be exempt. United estimated the $50 fee would apply to about one out of seven customers.
Fuel prices have declined in recent weeks as oil prices have fallen, from a high of $147 a barrel to below $96 a barrel yesterday. But United said fuel prices remain more than 50 percent higher than last year.
Shares of UAL rose $1, or 8.8 percent, to close at $12.36.
24,600 TO LOSE JOBS IN HP MERGER
SAN FRANCISCO — Hewlett-Packard Co. said yesterday it plans to slash 24,600 jobs over the next three years, nearly 8 percent of its workforce, as it combines operations with Electronic Data Systems Corp., the technology-services company it recently acquired.
Most of the cuts will come from within EDS' ranks, and nearly half will hit jobs in the U.S., HP said yesterday after the markets closed.
HP had not previously detailed how many employees of the combined company would lose their jobs. Before the acquisition, HP had 178,000 people and EDS had 142,000, a total of 320,000.
OIL PRICES TUMBLE TO UNDER $100
NEW YORK — Oil prices closed below $100 a barrel for the first time in six months yesterday, tumbling in another dramatic sell-off as the demise of Lehman Brothers and the sale of Merrill Lynch deepened worries about the U.S. economy.
Crude prices shed more than $5 a barrel and have now given up virtually all their gains for the year, extending a steep, two-month slide from record levels above $147 a barrel.
Oil's pullback also came as early signs suggested that Hurricane Ike delivered less damage than feared to the Gulf Coast energy oil and gas infrastructure. But pump prices jumped above $4 a gallon in parts of the country as a precautionary shutdown of Gulf refineries caused gasoline shortages.
INDUSTRIAL OUTPUT IN U.S. FALLS 1.1%
WASHINGTON — Government data show the nation's industrial output plunged in August by nearly four times the amount that had been expected. It's the worst performance since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005.
The Federal Reserve reported yesterday that industrial output dropped 1.1 percent last month, far worse than the 0.3 percent decline that economists had been expecting.
GOOGLE-YAHOO DEAL REVIEWED
WASHINGTON — Roadblocks are mounting on a vital route for Yahoo Inc.'s revival: the company's advertising partnership with once-rival Google Inc.
The European Union said yesterday that it was reviewing the deal for antitrust implications there, adding to recent public criticism from major U.S. advertisers and a worldwide association of newspapers.
In addition, the U.S. Justice Department is considering a formal challenge to the partnership, through which Google would broker some text ads for Yahoo's search engine.
Yahoo has the most to lose financially if the deal is delayed or scuttled. The Sunnyvale, Calif., Internet company struck the deal as an alternative to Microsoft Corp.'s hostile takeover bid, saying the Google deal could help Yahoo remain independent while boosting its cash flow.
By extending a lifeline to Yahoo with the advertising partnership, Google stepped up scrutiny of its own growing dominance in online advertising, said Jeffrey Lindsay, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein.
