Cable & Wireless ups number of isle layoffs

More former Digital Island employees than expected will lose their jobs later this year.

The company's British parent, Cable & Wireless Internet Services Inc., has amended a previous notice to the state Department of Labor & Industrial Relations to say about 25 of its 60 employees in Honolulu are being let go beginning May 24. Terminations are to be completed by Sept. 15.

Dollar falls, Tokyo stocks slip in sluggish trading

TOKYO >> The U.S. dollar edged lower against the yen early today in sluggish trading ahead of the Memorial Day holiday in the United States. Tokyo stocks dipped.

The dollar bought 124.85 yen in early trading, down 0.19 yen from late Friday but above its late New York level of 124.67 yen overnight.

The benchmark 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average lost 0.95 point, or 0.08 percent, to 11,975.33 at the open.

The broader Tokyo Stock Price Index of all issues listed on the first section was down 0.85 point, or 0.07 percent, to 1,138.58 early today.

South Korea may squelch phone carrier equity deal

SEOUL >> The South Korean government threatened yesterday to scuttle SK Telecom's acquisition of the largest single block of shares in the KT Corp., Korea's dominant telephone company, in order to prevent KT from becoming an arm of the SK Group, one of Korea's largest conglomerates.

The Korean ministry of information and communications, responsible for privatizing KT, said the government might force SK to return some KT shares, which it had bought in what was to have been the final sell-off of government-owned shares.

The ministry adopted its stance after SK, Korea's largest mobile telephone operator, appeared unwilling to accept a KT proposal that KT retrieve most of the shares sold to SK Telecom by exchanging them for KT's 9.7 percent stake in SK.