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Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Monday, September 4, 2000

Nikkei declines for 5th straight day

TOKYO -- Tokyo stocks closed lower today for a fifth straight session after investors took profits on shares they felt had risen too high. The dollar slipped against the yen.

The benchmark 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average fell 51.57 points, or 0.31 percent, to close at 16,688.21 on 500.49 million shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. On Friday, the average closed down 121.48 points, or 0.72 percent. The dollar bought 105.88 yen, down 0.64 yen from late Friday in Tokyo and also below its late New York level of 105.79 yen.

Shipyard workers reject contract offer

AUGUSTA, Maine -- After a secret-ballot vote, some members of the largest union at Bath Iron Works walked out of their meeting place holding their fists aloft, chanting, "Strike! Strike!"

With that, leaders of the International Association of Machinists' union representing 4,800 workers rejected the Navy shipbuilder's latest contract offer, sending a strike against the Navy shipbuilder into its second week. Union representatives would not give a tally. But workers said the contract yesterday was voted down 1,805 to 1,611 -- a much narrower vote than the 88 percent margin by which the initial offer was rejected a week earlier.

Wage increases offered by the company include 4 percent as of Aug. 28, 3.5 percent in August 2001 and 4 percent a year after that, in addition to a $750 signing bonus. Workers are seeking twice the company's offer.

Report: WorldCom to buy Intermedia

NEW YORK -- WorldCom Inc. is in the final stages of buying Intermedia Communications Inc. for $3 billion, or $39 a share, in cash and stock, Dow Jones reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.

The No. 2 U.S. long-distance company also will assume more than $3 billion in Intermedia debt, the news service said. WorldCom would enter the fast-growing Web services market through the purchase, as revenue from traditional telephone services shrinks.