Business & Finance

Stepping up a $9 billion restructuring at Ford Motor Co., chief executive Bill Ford said he's seeking an additional $1 billion cut in overhead costs, The Financial Times reported. The comment, made before a meeting of investors, reflected analysts' views that more aggressive cost-cutting is needed, the newspaper said. It also sent share prices for the world's second-largest automaker up more than 15 percent Monday to $9.55.

United Airlines announced another 1,250 layoffs in what it said was just the beginning of a major restructuring needed to secure a $1.8 billion federal loan guarantee. Without the new infusion of cash, United has warned that it could be forced into bankruptcy. The carrier has laid off 20,000 workers amid an industrywide downturn in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Troubled Dynegy Inc. said it would lay off 780 more workers, 600 of them at its Houston headquarters, as part of a previously announced plan to exit the energy trading and marketing business. Dynegy cut 340 jobs in June. The company is struggling with the fallout from its cancelled buyout of bankrupt Enron, with allegations related to California's energy crisis, and with weak energy markets.

ABB Ltd., the largest electrical/engineering conglomerate in Europe, warned that a US subsidiary may file for bankruptcy because its remaining assets are smaller than its liability in asbestos-related lawsuits. Combustion Engineering Inc., a Norwalk, Conn., company that makes boilers, has a book value of $812 million, ABB said, whereas it already has paid more than $1 billion to settle asbestos claims and the potential for future liability is impossible to estimate. ABB is based in Zurich, Switzerland.