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Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Monday, November 27, 2000

Dole Food selects online merchant

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. -- Dole Food Co., the world's biggest seller of fresh fruit, said it will use Tradingproduce.com for online business for its Dole Fresh Vegetables Inc. subsidiary. Dole, based in Westlake Village, Calif., chose closely held Tradingproduce.com because its services were secure, easy to use and inexpensive, Dole said. Tradingproduce.com does not charge clients transaction fees, instead making money through financial consulting, analysis and other services.

Kerkorian sues DaimlerChrysler

DETROIT -- Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian has filed a $9 billion lawsuit against DaimlerChrysler AG, accusing chairman Juergen Schrempp with lying to Chrysler shareholders about the 1998 merger. The lawsuit, filed in Delaware by the Kerkorian-owned Tracinda Corp., accuses executives of Daimler-Benz of making "false representations" that the combination with Chrsyler Corp. was "a merger of equals."

Tracinda Corp. said the suit seeks to unwind the $34 billion deal. It claims that it would have never voted for the deal if it had been presented as a takeover of Chrysler by the Germany company. Kerkorian is DaimlerChrysler's third-largest individual shareholder. Tracinda said it "seeks to unwind the transaction so that Chrysler will once again be an independent corporation owned by Chrysler shareholders."

In other news . . .

NEW YORK -- Agilent Technologies Inc. will acquire communications-systems software maker Objective Systems Integrators Inc. for $665 million. The deal, announced today, will let Palo Alto, Calif.-based Agilent expand its portfolio.

SEOUL -- Daewoo Motor Co.'s main union said key members voted to support cost cuts including layoffs, opening the way for a Korean court to accept the automaker's filing for receivership. The union's 150 key union members endorsed an accord between its eight-member leadership and Korea's No. 2 automaker to keep the company in business, said a Daewoo Motor union spokesman.