Business news in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The unemployment rate is screwy right now because the labor market is so weak that people have stopped trying.”

Heidi Shierholz,

an economist at the Economic Policy Institute Article, 1D

Olympus, whistle-blower reach deal

TOKYO - Olympus Corp. has reached a settlement with whistle-blower Michael Woodford, who had sued over his dismissal as chief executive of the Japanese camera maker.

Woodford, a Briton, was fired in October after he blew the whistle on dubious accounting at Olympus. The Tokyo-based company has acknowledged it hid $1.5 billion in investment losses dating back to the 1990s.

Terms of the deal reached Tuesday were not disclosed as a condition of the settlement, both sides said. The company said Wednesday that its board must also sign off on the settlement.

“Hopefully today is a closer. A line has been drawn, and the company can move on and I can,” Woodford told reporters in London.

The case had been set to go before a British employment court Monday, but that was delayed.

Woodford said a board meeting was set for June 8, but Olympus declined to confirm that. Woodford said he could not give details of the agreement.

Woodford, a rare foreigner to lead a major Japanese company and the first at Olympus, has conceded he has given up on any comeback at the camera and medical equipment maker.

Three former Olympus executives, including the company’s ex-chairman, were arrested earlier this year on suspicion of orchestrating the cover-up. The company has carried out its own investigation and is suing some executives for damages.

Fiat Industrial seeks to merge units

MILAN - Fiat Industrial SpA has proposed a full merger with its U.S.-based CNH farm and construction business.

Fiat Industrial said in a statement Wednesday that the goal of the merger would be to simplify the company’s structure to attract international investors, improve its credit rating and facilitate growth. It said expected cost savings are minimal.

The proposal calls for the new company’s main listing to be on the New York Stock Exchange with a secondary listing in Europe. It would be based in the Netherlands.

Shareholders must approve the deal.

Fiat Industrial, which spun off from the Fiat auto business in 2010, owns 88 percent of CNH.

Daimler unveils more efficient big rig

Daimler AG’s Freightliner unit has developed a truck that achieved 9.3 miles per gallon, compared with 6 mpg efficiency for a typical U.S. big rig, company executives said.

The 2014 Freightliner Cascadia Evolution improved its fuel economy through aerodynamic improvements and engine adjustments, Martin Daum, chief executive officer of Daimler Trucks North America, said Wednesday at a news conference in National Harbor, Md.

The company is the first in the U.S. market to build a truck that meets the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2014 greenhouse-gas emissions targets, executives said.

“We need companies like Daimler to push the boundaries,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said at the news conference.

President Barack Obama’s administration announced a plan last year that targets improving tractor-trailer fuel economy by about 20 percent by 2018, saving $50 billion in fuel costs over five years and decreasing carbon-dioxide emissions.

Daimler’s Portland, Ore.-based Freightliner unit hit the 9.3-mpg mark during a road trip testing the 2014 model under real-world conditions, company executives said.

Under test-track conditions, pulling a trailer that was also aerodynamically improved, the truck got 10.7 miles per gallon.

U.S. sets tentative duties on washers

The Commerce Department proposed duties Wednesday of as much as 71 percent on large, residential washing machines made in South Korea, concluding that government subsidies for the goods undercut U.S. producers.

The agency announced a preliminary finding after Whirlpool Corp. of Benton Harbor, Mich., said in a Dec.

30 complaint that Seoul-based LG Electronics Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. of Suwon, South Korea, and Daewoo Electronics Corp. sell the washing machines to U.S. customers for less than production costs.

Daewoo was told to pay 71 percent, Samsung 1.2 percent and LG Electronics 0.22 percent on their portions of $569 million in annual imports from South Korea, according to the Commerce Department. All other companies would pay 1.2 percent. The duty set for Seoul-based Daewoo reflects the company’s refusal to respond to the U.S.

investigation, the agency said.

Whirlpool rose 30 cents to close Wednesday at $63.13.

The agency’s decision sets countervailing duties, which are imposed to offset government subsidies. The Commerce Department hasn’t issued results of its investigation into Whirlpool’s anti-dumping complaint against washer imports from Korea and Mexico. That decision is scheduled next month, according to a statement.

Kayak to postpone IPO, source says

Kayak Software Corp. is delaying its initial public offering after Facebook Inc.’s post-IPO tumble, according to a person close to the situation.

The Norwalk, Conn.-based online-travel service has postponed the roadshow for the offering, which was to start last week, said the person, who declined to be identified because the information is private. Morgan Stanley, the lead bank on Facebook’s initial share sale, also was hired to lead Kayak’s IPO.

Kayak would have been the first U.S. Internet offering since Facebook went public in the biggest technology IPO on record this month. The social network’s share price has fallen since its market debut in the worst-performing large IPO in the past decade.

ServiceNow Inc., an IT cloud-computing services company, and Palo Alto Networks Inc., an Internet security company, both planning IPOs led by Morgan Stanley, are on track to go public, said people familiar with the situation. Pen Pendleton, a spokesman for Morgan Stanley, declined to comment.

Mike Haro, a spokesman with Palo Alto Networks, and Rhett Glauser, a spokesman with ServiceNow, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Jessica Casano-Antonellis, a spokesman for Kayak, declined to comment.

Business, Pages 26 on 05/31/2012

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