Business Desk
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REGIONAL
LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES CUTS HEALTH BENEFITS FOR MORE RETIREES
For the second time in a year, telecommunications equipment maker Lucent Technologies Inc. is cutting benefits promised to thousands of its retirees.
The Murray Hill, N.J.-based company, which reported billions of dollars in losses during the telecommunications industry slump, notified employees by letter it will no longer pay for health insurance for dependents of management workers who retired on or after March 1, 1990, at a salary of $65,000 or more.
Last September, Lucent announced identical cuts for managers who had retired during the same period but had a base salary of at least $87,000.That change took effect on Jan. 1.
Two weeks ago, Lucent said it would try to reduce future health care costs for its retired union workers when it begins negotiating a new contract with their unions. Bargaining is set to start in early October.
The latest cut affects the dependents of 5,400 management retirees, a total of 7,400 dependents – spouses, disabled children, and children age 23 or younger living at home. It takes effect January 1, 2005.
The prior cutback affected about 9,000 dependents of 7,300 retirees.
– Associated Press
PEOPLE
JPMORGAN’S FINANCE CHIEF RESIGNS; CAVANAGH PROMOTED
JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second-biggest American bank, said Chief Financial Officer Dina Dublon will resign and be replaced by Michael Cavanagh, now head of the company’s business of lending to midsize companies.
Mr. Cavanagh, who was appointed to the bank’s executive committee, will report to President Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan said in a statement. The company also said a vice chairman, David Coulter, will relocate to Los Angeles from New York, becoming the bank’s West Coast chairman.
The shakeup is the first since JPMorgan acquired Bank One Corp., where Mr. Dimon was chief executive officer. Mr. Dimon is the designated successor to JPMorgan CEO William Harrison and is in charge of wringing out costs as the banks combine. Mr. Cavanagh was one of several executives who followed Mr. Dimon to Chicago-based Bank One from Citigroup Inc., the world’s biggest bank.
JPMorgan said Linda Bammann, deputy head of risk management, and James Boshart, who headed Bank One Corp.’s commercial-banking business, also will leave the company at yearend. Don McCree will succeed Ms. Bammann.
– Bloomberg News
DISNEY’S IGER ONLY INTERNAL CANDIDATE TO LEAD COMPANY
Walt Disney Co.’s board of directors said company President Robert Iger is “the one internal candidate” to replace Disney’s chief executive, Michael Eisner, and that it also will consider outsiders.
Disney, the second-largest American broadcast and entertainment company, has hired an executive search firm to find a successor for Mr. Eisner, who will retire in September 2006, the board said in an e-mailed statement.
Directors, including Mr. Eisner, met yesterday and Monday for a regularly scheduled board meeting in Burbank, Calif., Disney spokeswoman Zenia Mucha said before the announcement. Mr. Eisner on September 9 said he would step down when his contract ends. Since then, former Disney board members Roy Disney and Stanley Gold have said Mr. Eisner should leave sooner.
“The board’s job is to put aside the external pressures,” said Peter Jankovskis, director of research at Lisle, Ill.-based Oakbrook Investments, which owns 900,000 Disney shares among its $1.3 billion in assets. “They are moving forward. I don’t think Disney is in turmoil,” he said before the board’s announcement. Mr. Eisner, 62, has served 20 years as CEO of Disney. Disney’s compensation committee approved a new incentive program for some senior executives. Under the new program, 70% of their annual bonus will be based on specific financial measures set at the beginning of each fiscal year by the board’s compensation committee.
– Bloomberg News
NATIONAL
ADELPHIA TO AUCTION CABLE SYSTEMS IN SEVEN GROUPS
Adelphia Communications Corp., the bankrupt American cable-television operator, said it divided its cable systems into seven regional groups that will be sold in an auction. Dividing the company’s cable systems into seven clusters may maximize bids by potential buyers, Adelphia’s chief executive, Bill Schleyer, said in a statement. Mr. Schleyer, 53, on April 22 said the company would sell its assets to raise funds and repay creditors who are owed more than $18 billion. The clusters are Northern New England/Eastern New York; Cleveland/Greater Ohio Valley; Florida/Southeast; California/Western; Virginia/Maryland/Colorado Springs/Kentucky; Pennsylvania; and Western New York & Connecticut, Adelphia said in a statement. The Greenwood, Colo.-based company is the fifth-largest American cable-TV operator. Mr. Schleyer in February proposed a reorganization plan that valued the company’s assets at about $17 billion and would have allowed it to emerge from bankruptcy as an independent company. Creditors said the company may be worth more if it is sold.
– Bloomberg News