AUTOMOTIVE: Tata Motors to buy Jaguar, Land Rover

Ford Motor Co. will sell its Jaguar and Land Rover brands in the United Kingdom to India's Tata Motors Ltd. for at least $2 billion, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the transaction. The deal would transfer two of the world's best-known luxury brands to India's largest truckmaker.

DEALS: P&G to purchase hair products firm

Procter & Gamble Co., the largest U.S. consumer goods producer, agreed to buy hair care products maker Frederic Fekkai & Co. from Catterton Partners to expand into faster-growing beauty lines. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

FINANCIAL: FDIC expected to add personnel

Washington —- Anticipating a surge in troubled financial institutions, federal regulators will increase by 60 percent the number of workers who handle bank failures. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. wants to add 140 workers to bring staff levels to 360 workers in the division that handles bank failures, John Bovenzi, the agency's chief operating officer, said Tuesday. There have been five bank failures since February 2007 following an uneventful stretch of more than two years. The last time the agency was hit hard with failures was during the 1990-91 recession, when 502 banks failed in three years.

Regions Financial to cut 4% of staff

Birmingham —- Alabama-based Regions Financial Corp. said Tuesday that it will trim 4 percent of its jobs in 16 states, meaning the loss of about 1,300 current and vacant positions. Bank spokesman Tim Deighton said the cuts are related to Regions' acquisition of rival AmSouth Bancorp in 2006. Regions employs about 33,000 people. News of the cutbacks became public a day after shareholders filed a federal lawsuit in Birmingham claiming Regions executives hid loan losses and sold their own shares of bank stock because they knew prices were headed lower.

FOOD / BEVERAGE: Lenny's Sub Shops plans to expand

Memphis-based Lenny's Franchisor LLC plans to open 25 to 30 Lenny's Sub Shops in metro Atlanta in the next five years, the company said Tuesday. Lenny's has seven existing outlets in the metro area, none within the Atlanta city limits. Sites have not been determined for the new shops, but the company is eyeing the downtown, Midtown and Georgia Tech areas. Lenny's is a Philadelphia-style sandwich shop that touts its fresh-baked bread and deli meats and cheese sliced to order.

LEGAL: Vioxx paperwork deadline extended

New Orleans —- People who think their heart attacks or strokes were caused by the once-popular painkiller Vioxx now have another month to file the paperwork to back up their claims under a settlement with manufacturer Merck & Co. An outside attorney for Merck, Doug Marvin, told U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon on Tuesday that claims are coming in every day to the Richmond-based law firm appointed to administer them, BrownGreer PLC. He says Merck has agreed to put off the deadline until May 1.

Bear Stearns investors sue

Bear Stearns Cos. investors seeking better value than a $10 per-share bid by JPMorgan Chase & Co. asked a Delaware state judge to prohibit the sale of 95 million new shares until a hearing can be held to stop the sale. The judge should restrain the sale, due to close before April 8, until lawyers can present their cases for a permanent injunction, the plaintiffs said in papers filed late Tuesday.

MEDIA: Report: Radio deal may fall through

San Antonio —- Shares of Clear Channel Communications Inc. plummeted in late trading Tuesday, following a report that the media company's private buyout is on the brink of collapse. Shares fell 5.5 percent in regular trading and an additional 21 percent to $25.68 after-hours —- far below the $39.20-per-share the buyout firms promised shareholders. The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site Tuesday that the private equity firms leading the $19.5 billion buyout, Thomas H. Lee and Bain Capital Partners, were having difficulty reaching terms with the banks committed to financing the deal.

RETAILING: Lowe's chief's pay rises 7.5% in '07

Charlotte —- Lowe's Cos. chairman and chief executive, Robert Niblock, received compensation from the nation's second-biggest home improvement retailer valued at $9.1 million in 2007 —- about 7.5 percent more than in 2006, a regulatory filing Tuesday showed. Niblock received $1.05 million in 2007 salary. He did not receive any non-equity compensation for the fiscal year ended Feb. 1, because of a decrease of 8.65 percent in the company's net earnings before interest and taxes from the immediately preceding fiscal year. Niblock did receive stock awards that the company valued at $7.9 million on the day they were granted.

TECHNOLOGY: Social-networking group expands

Yahoo is joining an effort backed by Google and MySpace to spur the creation of applications for social networks. Yahoo said Tuesday that it will endorse a technical specification called OpenSocial that was initiated by Google and supported by MySpace and other social-networking sites, a sign that the initiative is gaining momentum after a slow start last fall. Yahoo, Google and MySpace also said they are planning an independent, nonprofit foundation that would provide technology and intellectual property guidelines for the evolving standard.

TELECOM: AT&T appoints technology chief

AT&T Inc. has named former VeriSign Inc. executive John Donovan its new chief technology officer to oversee research and network upgrades. Donovan will report to John Stankey, who oversees the landline business, AT&T spokeswoman Jeannie Hornung said. He previously oversaw sales, operations, customer service and product development at Internet directory manager VeriSign.

TRANSPORTATION: United drops fuel surcharge

United Airlines dropped a $10 round-trip fuel surcharge increase after less than a week because other U.S. airlines didn't match it. United rescinded the change to "keep our fares competitive," spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said in an e-mail. Delta initiated the increase last week and rolled back the fee after others failed to follow, Rick Seaney of Web site FareCompare.com said in an e-mailed statement.

Busy airports to get runway lights

Warning light systems will be installed at about 20 busy U.S. airports under a $300 million federal plan to reduce runway collisions. The so-called runway status lights will alert pilots when it's unsafe to cross or take off, the Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday. The FAA didn't identify where it plans to deploy the technology, due to be in place by 2011.

Union criticizes United outsourcing

Chicago —- A mechanics union said Tuesday that United Airlines has exceeded the amount of money it is allowed to spend outsourcing aircraft maintenance work by nearly a half-billion dollars. But the airline disputed the conclusions of an audit conducted for the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, saying its spending on outsourced work is within the limits of its contract with the union. The AMFA says the audit revealed that United in 2006 spent $280 million more on outsourced work than allowed under a union contract after exceeding the maximum amount allowed by $200 million in 2005.