News In Brief

Sony Corp. will ship only half of its projected 1 million new PlayStation2 video game consoles to US stores in time for year-end holiday sales, an announcement said. The electronics giant blamed an unspecified parts shortage for the problem, which economists predicted would cost retailers hundreds of millions of dollars in lost sales. It also was expected to anger consumers, tens of thousands of whom have put down deposits for the sophisticated and heavily promoted device. Sony said it expected to be able to fulfill its commitment by next March 31.

There was more bad news for Bridgestone/Firestone in a report by The Wall Street Journal that Ford Motor Co. plans to switch to rival Michelin tires for the bulk of its new Explorer sport utility vehicles. And the government of Saudi Arabia notified exporters that it has banned sales of both new and used vehicles equipped with Firestone tires because of fatalities linked to them in other countries.

Global Crossing, which operates or is building a dozen fiber-optics networks around the world, will sell its Web hosting unit to Exodus Communications Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., in a $6.5 billion all-stock deal, The Wall Street Journal reported. A similar offer for GlobalCenter was rejected by the Hamilton, Bermuda-based company two months ago, apparently because it planned to raise that amount in a public offering of shares.

(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society