News In Brief

Sales by us retail stores kept climbing in February after a more robust January than previously thought, the Commerce Department reported. Retail sales increased 0.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted $236.47 billion after a steeply revised 1 percent jump in January that was earlier reported as a 0.2 percent gain. February was the seventh straight month of retail-sales gains.

Twelve thousand jobs, most of them in the US, will be cut over the next two years, the French telecommunications giant Alcatel announced. A senior executive said the layoffs would result from a restructuring of American operations and would save a projected $654 million. However, Alcatel still was unlikely to meet its target of 8 percent growth in profits this year, he said.

Ending two weeks of silence on a proposed $57.3 billion hostile takeover, Telecom Italia announced plans to thwart the move via an attempted merger with its cell-phone subsidiary, Telecom Italia Mobile. Approval by the parent company's stockholders will be sought by April 16. Analysts said such a merger would drive up the price beyond what rival Olivetti might be able to pay. Telecom Italia is already five times larger than Olivetti.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
QR Code to News In Brief
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/1999/0312/p24s4.html
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe