AGRICULTURE

Chambliss blasts whistle-blower

Washington —- Sen. Saxby Chambliss —- already facing heat for sharply questioning a whistle-blower in a fatal sugar refinery accident outside Savannah —- toughened his criticism by saying the employee is "on the hook" for the February explosion that killed 13 workers. Asked about the issue Friday, the Georgia Republican suggested that the whistle-blower is trying to deflect from his own failure to act by accusing Imperial Sugar Co. executives of resisting safety warnings about the company's plant in Port Wentworth. Chambliss said if Vice President of Operations Graham H. Graham knew the plant was so dangerous, he should have pressed more urgently to shut it down. "My question is if it was that bad, and you thought somebody was fixing to get killed, why in the world weren't you more forceful?" he said. "Why didn't he really do something? Because ... as a result of his failure to do something a serious accident did happen, in my opinion. This guy Graham knows he's on the hook."

AUTOMOTIVE

Chrysler to offer 72-month deals

Chrysler LLC said Friday that it will allow customers to purchase cars under finance deals with payments similar to leases as it tries to lure buyers a week after announcing it's getting out of the leasing business. Chrysler said it will offer 72-month finance deals starting this month on a range of its compact, midsize and full-size cars. It said it will finance the program using resources typically reserved for its leasing operations. "As part of our annual August model-year clearance, we are leveraging the move from leasing to retail purchases to offer our customers the best deals of the year and make buying as affordable as renting," Vice Chairman and President Jim Press said in a statement. Chrysler said the new program will allow monthly payments lower than previous finance offers and similar to its 36-month leases.

Ford on target for white-collar cuts

Dearborn, Mich. —- Ford Motor Co. says it is on target to reach its goal of cutting 15 percent of its salaried employee costs in North America. Friday was the company's self-imposed deadline to finish the cuts, which included an unspecified number of involuntary layoffs, normal attrition and leaving unfilled positions vacant, said spokeswoman Marcey Evans. She would not say how many salaried and contractual workers lost their jobs.

DEALS

Bristol-Myers finishes unit sale

Drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said Friday that it has completed the sale of its high-tech dressing and wound care business, which will free up money needed to buy the company's cancer drug partner, ImClone Systems Inc. New York-based Bristol-Myers announced in early April that it intended to sell its ConvaTec unit as part of a strategy aimed at shedding noncore assets and moving into the biotech business via acquisitions. Bristol-Myers sold ConvaTec for about $4.1 billion to two private equity funds, Nordic Capital and Avista Capital Partners. ConvaTec, based in Skillman, N.J., has more than 3,500 employees in 91 countries.

Amazon.com to buy AbeBooks

Amazon.com Inc., the world's largest Internet retailer, agreed Friday to purchase AbeBooks, which lists used, rare and out-of-print volumes for independent booksellers. No price was given. The deal should be completed by the end of 2008, the Seattle-based company said.

FINANCIAL

IndyMac Bancorp files for Chapter 7

IndyMac Bancorp Inc., former holding company of the California mortgage lender seized last month by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. Chapter 7 means the business is untenable and will be liquidated in order to help pay off its creditors. The filing was Thursday.

LEGAL

Liberty Media unit wins injunction

Liberty Media Corp.'s TruePosition unit, a provider of mobile-phone location equipment, won a permanent injunction prohibiting rival CommScope Inc.'s Andrew Corp. from marketing products that infringe on a U.S. patent. U.S. District Judge Sue Robinson also reduced last year's $45.3 million jury award for TruePosition to $23.25 million and denied Andrew's bid for a new trial, in an opinion issued Friday in Wilmington, Del. TruePosition and Andrew "are the only suppliers in a two-supplier market" and TruePosition "has established irreparable harm" from the infringement, Robinson wrote. "A sale to defendant is the loss of a sale to plaintiff." Berwyn, Pa.-based TruePosition sued Andrew in 2005 over the patent, alleging infringing sales of telecommunications gear to Saudi Arabia. A year earlier, Andrew agreed to pay TruePosition $35 million to settle another patent suit.

MANUFACTURING

Israel may buy 9 Lockheed C-130Js

Israel may buy nine Lockheed Martin Corp. C-130J transport aircraft valued at as much as $1.9 billion. The order calls for aircraft built by Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed as well as six spare engines from London-based Rolls-Royce Group, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in an e-mailed statement Friday. The sale would provide Israel with a special operations airlift capability that would deter aggression in the region, provide humanitarian airlift capability and ensure interoperability with U.S. forces, the agency said. Notice of the proposed sale is required by law and doesn't mean that the transaction has taken place. Congress has 30 days to review the proposal.

Military billing judgment reduced

United Technologies Corp. violated the False Claims Act in billing for jet engines it supplied to the U.S. military in the 1980s and should pay the government $7 million, far less than the $628 million prosecutors sought, a judge ruled. Federal Judge Thomas Rose in Dayton, Ohio, said that although United Technologies' Pratt & Whitney unit knowingly made false claims, the government suffered no actual damages.

MEDIA

IAC/InterActive ready to split

IAC/InterActiveCorp will complete a breakup into five companies within three to four weeks, Chief Executive Barry Diller said Friday. Investors approved a reverse stock split that will take effect when IAC spins off four units. Diller proposed the split in November to lift IAC's stock, down 63 percent since 2003. The HSN home-shopping network, LendingTree mortgage-referral business, Ticketmaster Inc. and time-share management company Interval Leisure Group will become independent. The "new IAC" will keep search engine Ask.com and the Match.com dating service. "I expect new IAC to exceed the current size of IAC," said Diller, pointing to the rapid growth of the online search market dominated by Google Inc. "It's focused on an area of the Internet I'm still very curious about."

REGULATORY

Citigroup faces auction-rate probe

New York —- Citigroup Inc. disclosed in a regulatory filing Friday that the Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators have subpoenaed information from the bank about the sale of auction-rate securities. Citigroup said in an SEC filing that officials are investigating whether federal securities laws were violated. Auction-rate securities have their interest rates set at periodic auctions, depending on the submitted bids. The investments were once considered safe, but the market collapsed in February amid turmoil in the credit markets.

TECHNOLOGY

Congress inquires about Net privacy

Washington —- A congressional committee wants the nation's largest telecommunications and Internet companies to explain whether they target online advertising based on consumers' search queries and Web surfing habits. In an expanding inquiry into the state of consumer privacy on the Internet, House Commerce Committee leaders sent letters Friday to more than 30 companies, demanding to know whether they track where their users go online and use that information to deliver personalized advertising. Among the companies receiving the letters were Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AT&T, Verizon Communications and AOL.

Time Warner: Exec can't join Yahoo

Time Warner Inc. said former AOL chief Jonathan Miller, a potential Yahoo director, can't work for the Internet company because he promised not to join any AOL rivals until next year. "When Jon Miller signed his contract, it specifically said that upon payout of the contract, he could not work for a variety of competitors, including Yahoo, until March 2009," Time Warner said in an e-mailed statement. Miller left AOL in 2006.

Shareholders say little to Yahoo

San Jose, Calif. —- Yahoo Inc.'s board emerged largely unscathed from the Internet company's annual meeting Friday as a subdued crowd of shareholders raised few questions about the directors' rejection of Microsoft Corp.'s $47.5 billion takeover bid. Some shareholders expressed displeasure by opposing the re-election of Yahoo's current directors, but the resistance wasn't as intense as last year, when three directors were rejected by more than 30 percent of the vote. In this year's balloting, only two directors —- Chairman Roy Bostock and Arthur Kern —- were opposed on ballots representing at least 20 percent of Yahoo shares. Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang was approved by 85 percent of the votes cast. Many investors had already made an emphatic statement about their feelings by dumping their holdings in Yahoo shares.

TELECOM

Union deals at Verizon expire

New York —- Union contracts covering about 65,000 workers at Verizon Communications Inc. expire tonight, but the threat of a strike appears small. The phone company is in negotiations with the Communications Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers for new contracts. Members of both unions have authorized a strike. If a strike occurs, the main effect could be delayed installations and repairs of landlines and Internet connections. Chief sticking points in the negotiations are the health plans for employees and retirees, said Candice Johnson at the CWA, which covers about 50,000 of the workers.

Verizon purchase OK'd by regulators

Verizon Wireless' $757 million purchase of Rural Cellular Corp. was approved by U.S. regulators, paving the way for an acquisition that will boost coverage and cut roaming expenses. The Federal Communications Commission disclosed the approval Friday in an e-mailed statement. Including debt, New Jersey-based Verizon Wireless will pay $2.67 billion for Rural Cellular, which operates in 15 states, including Alabama.

TRANSPORTATION

American pilots seek ruling on OT

American Airlines' pilot union, seeking to reduce furloughs as the carrier cuts flights and 200 pilot jobs, said it is seeking a judge's approval to advise members that they don't have to work voluntary overtime. Not flying the extra hours would help pare the number of layoffs at AMR Corp.'s American, Lloyd Hill, president of the Allied Pilots Association, said Friday in a statement. The union wants a ruling from a federal judge in Washington to avoid possible accusations of a sickout. "We want the court to say 'Yes, indeed, you can do this to avoid furloughs,' " said Karl Schricker, spokesman for the APA. "To cut back on extra flying allows you to mitigate furloughs. Everybody shares the pain and gets a little less in their paychecks, but it saves jobs."

United, pilots reach agreement

Chicago —- United Air Lines said Friday that it has reached an agreement with its pilot union to limit what the company calls work slowdowns that forced cancellation of hundreds of flights. Neither the airline nor the union disclosed specifics of the agreement, which was worked out behind closed doors and is to be in effect pending Aug. 27-28 hearings on a federal lawsuit seeking a preliminary injunction. "We have reached an agreement, but it is between the parties," United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy said.

WORKPLACE

Wal-Mart denies political charges

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, denied a report Friday that it had pressured employees to vote against Democrats in November because of worries that a bill the party supports would make it easier for workers to unionize. The measure, called the Employee Free Choice Act, would allow labor organizations to unionize workplaces without secret ballot elections. It was co-sponsored by Sen. Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic presidential candidate, and opposed by Sen. John McCain, the presumed Republican nominee. The Wall Street Journal said the Bentonville, Ark.-based discounter —- which has rigorously resisted being unionized —- had held mandatory meetings with store managers and department supervisors in recent weeks to warn that if Democrats take power in November, they would likely push through the bill, which the company says would hurt workers.