PUBLISHING

VILLAGE VOICE NAMES NEW EDITOR The Village Voice announced the hiring of Erik Wemple as their permanent editor in chief, according to its Web site last night. Mr. Wemple hails from the Washington City Paper, where he was the editor. He replaces Ward Harkavy, who was the interim editor in chief.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY

SUN MICROSYSTEMS TO FIRE AS MANY AS 5,000 Sun Microsystems Incorporated, the world’s no. 4 maker of server computers, said it will cut as many as many as 5,000 jobs, or 13% of the workforce, in the next six months as part of a plan to end almost five years of losses.

The moves will cost $340 million to $500 million, mostly in this quarter, and save $480 million to $590 million a year, Santa Clara, California-based Sun said yesterday in a statement. The company also plans to sell its Newark, California campus.

The changes are the biggest yet from CEO Jonathan Schwartz, who took over from Sun founder Scott McNealy on April 24. Schwartz, 40, promised a 90-day review of operations to boost profit and retake market share from Hewlett-Packard Company and Dell Incorporated. Analysts had lobbied for staff reductions at Sun, whose servers run corporate networks and Web sites – moves that McNealy had resisted.

– Bloomberg News

AIRLINES

JUDGE OKAYS DELTA PILOTS’ CONCESSIONS DEAL A bankruptcy judge yesterday approved the $280-million-a-year concessions agreement between Delta Air Lines Incorporated and its pilots, rejecting claims by the government’s pension insurer that it should receive the compensation the pilots were promised if their pension is terminated.

The decision came hours after rank-and-file pilots gave their nod to the deal. The agreement, which runs through 2009, will take effect today.

The deal, which replaces an interim pact agreed to in December, includes an initial 14% pay cut for pilots and assurances the pilots union won’t fight any company effort to terminate the pilots’ pension. Judge Adlai Hardin signed the agreement during a hearing in White Plains, N.Y. Earlier in the day, pilots of the Atlanta-based airline, the nation’s no. 3 carrier, approved the deal with a vote of 61% in favor.

– Associated Press

ENERGY

WAL-MART WEIGHS SELLING ETHANOL-BASED FUEL Wal-Mart Stores Incorporated may offer ethanol made from corn at its 383 American gas stations, a company spokesman said yesterday.

Wal-Mart stressed it is not ready yet to make any announcements, but corn growers said Wal-Mart’s entry into a market now mainly made up of scattered independent gas stations would be a significant boost to a budding new fuel industry.

Ethanol made from American-grown corn has become a hot topic this year as Congress, the Bush administration and American drivers look for alternative fuels to reduce dependence on foreign oil, keep fuel prices down and curb emissions blamed for global warming.

– Associated Press

EARNINGS

AMERICAN EAGLE MAY SAME-STORE SALES UP 11% American Eagle Outfitters Incorporated said late yesterday that May same-store sales, or sales at stores open more than one year, climbed 11%, helped by favorable customer response to the company’s summer lines and “ongoing strength of the American Eagle brand.”

The company also reiterated its second-quarter earnings projection of 39 cents to 41 cents a share.

– Dow Jones Newswires