AUTOMOTIVE: Volkswagen sets sales records

Volkswagen AG said Wednesday that deliveries for its flagship brand were up more than 10 percent in April to a record level. The German company said it delivered 1.25 million cars in the first four months of 2008, an increase of nearly 9 percent from the year-ago period, also a record.

Chrysler sells design studio

Daimler AG said Wednesday it has agreed to buy the shuttered California automotive design studio of former partner Chrysler LLC.

GM local in Kan. ratifies contract

General Motors union workers in Kansas approved a local contract Wednesday, ending a 17-day strike that limited production of the increasingly popular Chevrolet Malibu. United Auto Workers Local 31 members at GM's Fairfax, Kan., factory will restart production today, GM spokesman Dan Flores said.

DEALS: Corporate Express fights takeover

Amsterdam, Netherlands —- Office supplies distributor Corporate Express NV showed its determination to fend off a hostile takeover by Staples Inc. on Wednesday, announcing plans to instead buy French peer Lyreco SAS for about $2.7 billion in cash and shares. If approved by shareholder and regulators, a Corporate Express-Lyreco combination would create a sizable international competitor to Massachusetts-based Staples. Corporate Express' board rejected a $2.47 billion takeover offer from Staples last week, saying it undervalued the company. Staples then took its bid directly to Corporate Express shareholders.

FINANCIAL: Moody's probes possible errors

New York —- Moody's Investors Service said Wednesday it is "conducting a thorough review" of the possibility that computer errors wrongly assigned top-quality ratings to some debt that later declined in value. Moody's said in a statement that it would be "inconsistent" with its standards and policies to alter its methods to mask errors. The Financial Times has reported that Moody's incorrectly gave "AAA" ratings to billions of dollars of a debt instruments because of an error in computer models.

Sallie Mae to keep lending

SLM Corp. said Wednesday that it will continue to make federally guaranteed student loans, ending fears that the nation's largest student lender by dollar amount might join the recent exodus from a market that has been rocked by the credit crisis. The announcement by SLM, commonly known as Sallie Mae, came a day after the Bush administration said it would use U.S. Treasury funds to buy loans from closely held lenders and invest in special loan-backed trusts. In a teleconference with college administrators Wednesday, Albert Lord, Sallie Mae's chief executive, called the administration's plan "practical, workable and, maybe most of all, quite hopeful."

MANUFACTURING: Boeing to lay off 750 in California

Los Angeles —- Boeing Co. will lay off 750 Southern California employees following the loss of a lucrative satellite contract to a rival aerospace firm. Boeing said in a statement that the cuts will be focused on engineering staff at its El Segundo and Seal Beach plants.

REAL ESTATE: E-mail haunts Countrywide chief

Calabasas, Calif. —- The chairman of beleaguered Countrywide Financial Corp. raised eyebrows and tempers with his snippy reply to an e-mail plea from a man who said he was in danger of losing his home. "Disgusting," Angelo Mozilo wrote in his inadvertent reply to an e-mail from Daniel Bailey Jr. Bailey's e-mail went to 20 Countrywide addresses. He used language from a form letter on the Web site LoanSafe.org, which offers advice to borrowers in trouble. "This is unbelievable," Mozilo wrote Tuesday. "Most of these letters now have the same wording. Obviously they are being counseled by some other person or by the Internet. Disgusting." Mozilo apparently clicked "reply" instead of "forward," sending his comments back to Bailey.

Soros: Housing decline isn't over

Billionaire investor George Soros said the U.S. housing market is "not yet halfway" through its decline, which may last another 12 months. "The decline in housing prices is still accelerating and is going to overshoot on the downside the same way it overshot on the upside," Soros said at an event Wednesday at the London School of Economics. "We are not yet halfway in the decline in housing prices" and "we have at least 12 months of increasing foreclosures" to come, he said. Housing prices fell in two-thirds of U.S. cities in the first quarter. There is now a "bear market rally" which is "based on the false perception that the authorities can handle the crisis," Soros said. "The ability of the authorities to handle the crisis is constrained, and they're not going to be able to avoid a recession."

Bill would reduce agencies' loan caps

Washington —- A Senate bill aimed at reviving the beleaguered U.S. housing market could make borrowing for a home more expensive in high-priced markets such as California and New York. If the bill passes, the limit on the size of loans that can be purchased by government-sponsored mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will drop to $550,000 after spending 2008 at nearly $730,000. Loans purchased by Fannie and Freddie typically have lower interest rates because of the perception on Wall Street that the government-sponsored companies would be bailed out in the event of default.

RETAILING: 'Victor's Secret' loses in court

Louisville, Ky. —- A federal judge has permanently enjoined Victor and Cathy Moseley from using the names "Victor's Secret" and "Victor's Little Secret" on their adult novelty and lingerie shop in central Kentucky. U.S. District Judge Charles Simpson said in a ruling issued Wednesday that the names violate the trademark of Ohio-based lingerie retailer Victoria's Secret under the Federal Trademark Dilution Act. "The use of the remarkably similar 'Victor's Secret' or 'Victor's Little Secret' in connection with the sale of intimate lingerie along with sex toys and adult videos tarnishes the reputation of the Victoria's Secret mark," Simpson wrote.

TECHNOLOGY: Google acquisition faces questions

Google Inc. is facing more scrutiny over its acquisition of DoubleClick Inc. after a U.S. lawmaker demanded to know how the Internet company will protect consumers' privacy once their operations are combined. The companies collect "a great deal of data" on consumers' Internet activities, Rep. Joe Barton of Texas said Wednesday in a letter to Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt. Barton, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce's senior Republican, asked Schmidt to respond to questions on the combination. Google bought DoubleClick for $3.24 billion this year.

Microsoft site offers cash rebates

Redmond, Wash. —- Microsoft Corp. is offering cash rebates when people make purchases after using its search engine as the software maker begins to reveal how it plans to take on Google following the failure of its bid for Yahoo. Under the program revealed Wednesday, Web shoppers who sign up for an account and buy items found using Microsoft's Live Search cashback site will receive a percentage of the purchase price deposited into their account. In a statement, Microsoft said the rebates are paid for with advertising.

TELECOM: Cell providers, feds negotiate

Washington —- The government is quietly negotiating to help cellphone customers avoid expensive fees when they cancel contracts with wireless companies, The Associated Press reported Wednesday. Cellphone companies routinely charge customers $175 or more for quitting their service early. Under a proposal to the Federal Communications Commission, the wireless industry would give consumers the opportunity to cancel service without any penalty for up to 30 days after they sign a cellphone contract or until 10 days after they receive their first bill. The proposal also would cap such fees and reduce them month by month over the course of a contract. The plan would not abolish cancellation fees entirely and would not refund such fees to anyone who paid them. In exchange for the government's approval, the agreement would let cellphone companies off the hook in state courts where they are being sued for billions of dollars by angry customers.

TRANSPORTATION: Southwest CEO now chairman, too

Southwest Airlines Co. named Chief Executive Gary Kelly its chairman, succeeding Herb Kelleher as the co-founder of the largest low-fare carrier leaves the board after 41 years. Kelleher, 77, will remain an employee for another five years at the Dallas-based airline. Kelly, 53, previously held the title of vice chairman. Kelly takes full charge of Southwest as he extends a series of changes designed to boost revenue in response to rising fuel and labor costs. Southwest has grown to the sixth-largest U.S. carrier by traffic under the no-frills, short-flight model Kelleher created with a partner in 1967.

2 Frontier unions take concessions

Denver —- Frontier Airlines Holdings has agreed with two employee unions to reduce wages and benefits temporarily while it reorganizes under bankruptcy protection. The airline said Wednesday that the Frontier Airlines Pilots Association and the Transportation Workers Union each ratified an agreement. The unions represent pilots and dispatchers. Members of the management team, including Chief Executive Sean Menke, also have made wage and benefits concessions of up to 20 percent.

BA to upgrade Kennedy terminal

New York —- British Airways said Wednesday it will spend $30 million trying to make its terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport a snazzier place for first-class passengers. Some of the new features to be installed at JFK's Terminal 7 over the next 18 months include an exclusive, curbside drop-off area.

UTILITIES / ENERGY: Ukraine cancels deal with Vanco

Kiev, Ukraine —- Ukraine said Wednesday that it was canceling a contract with a U.S. oil company to explore for oil and gas on a deepwater shelf off the Crimean peninsula in the Black Sea. The government said the production-sharing agreement signed in 2006 with the subsidiary of Texas-based Vanco Energy Co. amounted to "plundering Ukraine's mineral reserves." Last month, Ukraine revoked Vanco's license, and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko earlier called for an investigation into how the license was awarded. The deal was Ukraine's first production-sharing agreement —- a type of deal common in relatively poor countries looking to tap capital-intensive oil and gas. U.S. Ambassador William Taylor called on Ukraine to reverse the cancellation, saying the project was important for its energy industry.

There's enough oil, OPEC chief says

Caracas, Venezuela —- OPEC's secretary-general said the world oil market is well-supplied, even as the price for a barrel soared above $130. OPEC chief Abdalla Salem el-Badri met Tuesday in Caracas with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Venezuela's state-run news agency quoted El-Badri as saying "there's no scarcity of oil in the market" because international supplies are very high. Recent record-high oil prices have been propelled by worries about insufficient supply, soaring global demand and a sliding dollar that has made oil cheaper in other countries.