FRANKFURT, Germany — German-based DaimlerChrysler AG said Monday it will sell almost all of money-losing Chrysler to a private equity firm for $7.4 billion, backing out of a troubled 1998 takeover aimed at creating a global automotive powerhouse.

Eighty percent of Chrysler Group, burdened by high labor costs and declining market share in the United States, will be sold to Cerberus Capital Management LP, a New York private equity firm.

The impact on Chrysler's 80,000 workers remained unclear, but Cerberus Chairman John Snow, a former U.S. treasury secretary, said the company plans to keep Chrysler's management and work with unions to return the struggling automaker to profitability.

MIXED DAY FOR U.S. STOCKS

NEW YORK — Wall Street closed narrowly mixed Monday after investors, uneasy about the government's upcoming inflation data, cashed in some of their gains from the market's months-long rally.

Blue chip stocks managed a modest increase following DaimlerChrysler AG's announcement that it will sell 80.1 percent of money-losing Chrysler Group to Cerberus Capital Management LP, a private equity group, for $7.4 billion. The deal, which lifted stocks in the automotive sector, undoes a 1998 merger aimed at creating a global auto giant.

The news buoyed the Dow Jones industrial average briefly to a new trading high, but the overall stock market dipped, with many investors wary ahead of Tuesday's release of the Labor Department's Consumer Price Index, a key measure of inflation.

RUPERT MURDOCH STEPS UP CAMPAIGN

NEW YORK — Rupert Murdoch is stepping up his campaign to woo the controlling shareholders of Dow Jones & Co., the Bancroft family, promising them a board seat on his media conglomerate, News Corp., as well as measures to ensure the independence of The Wall Street Journal.

Murdoch, in a letter to the Bancroft family dated May 11, promised to set up an independent editorial board for the Journal as he did with The Times of London, which would arbitrate any disputes between the editors and management. The board would also have to sign off on any decision to hire or fire the top two editors at the paper.

The Journal reported news of Murdoch's overture to the Bancrofts Monday on its Web site and also posted a text of the letter, which News Corp. spokesman Andrew Butcher confirmed to be accurate. A spokesman for the Bancroft family declined to comment.

CARDINAL BUYS VIASYS FOR $1.42B

DUBLIN, Ohio — Medical products and services company Cardinal Health Inc. said on Monday it will buy medical technology company Viasys Healthcare Inc. for $1.42 billion, an acquisition that will help Cardinal expand in international markets.

Cardinal will pay $42.75 per share for Viasys' outstanding shares, a 35 percent premium over its closing stock price of $31.55 on Friday. Viasys stock jumped 37 percent, or $11.63, to a record $43.18 per share in trading Monday. Cardinal also will assume debt of $50 million.

Conshohocken, Pa.-based Viasys, which had revenue of $610 million in 2006, has about 40 percent of its customers in international markets.

Cardinal is an $80 billion company that makes products and provides services for hospitals, doctors and pharmacies. It said the addition of Viasys complements its products, which include those that address medication errors, adverse drug reactions and infection prevention.

BUSH SETS DEADLINE ON EMISSIONS EFFORT

WASHINGTON — President Bush, prodded by a Supreme Court ruling, said Monday his administration will decide how to regulate pollution from new motor vehicles by the time he leaves office.

Bush signed an executive order directing federal agencies to craft regulations that will "cut gasoline consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles." He ordered the agencies — the departments of Transportation, Agriculture and Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency — to have the rules in place by the end of 2008.

The announcement came as gasoline prices hit a new record. The average national price of a gallon of gas reached $3.07 on Monday, above the previous peak of $3.06 set soon after Hurricane Katrina hit at the end of August 2005.

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT BLOCKS INTERNET SITES

DENVER — Soldiers serving overseas are losing some of their online links to friends and family back home under a Department of Defense policy that an Army official said formally takes effect Monday.

The Defense Department is blocking access "worldwide" to YouTube, MySpace and 11 other popular Web sites on its computers and networks, according to a memo sent Friday by Gen. B.B. Bell, the U.S. Forces Korea commander.

The policy is being implemented to protect information and reduce drag on the department's networks, according to Bell.

The armed services have long barred members of the military from sharing information that could jeopardize their missions or safety, whether electronically or by other means. The new policy is different because it creates a blanket ban on several sites used by military personnel to exchange messages, pictures, video and audio with family and friends.

EX-ORACLE VP SETTLES CHARGES

SAN FRANCISCO — In the latest crackdown on illicit pillow talk, the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday accused a former Oracle Corp. vice president of improperly profiting from his wife's knowledge about two deals engineered by her boss — Oracle's acquisitive chief executive, Larry Ellison.

Christopher Balkenhol, the former Oracle vice president named in a civil complaint filed in a San Francisco federal court, agreed to pay nearly $199,000 to settle the case without admitting or denying wrongdoing. His attorney didn't immediately return phone messages Monday.

The SEC alleged Balkenhol, 40, had invested more than $530,000 in two of Oracle's takeover targets during 2005 based on intimate information passed along by his wife, the supervising executive assistant for Ellison as well as the company's co-presidents, Charles Phillips and Safra Catz.

SOURCE INTERLINK BUYS PRIMEDIA UNIT

TAMPA, Fla. — Source Interlink Cos., a magazine, CD and DVD distributor to leading grocery and book store chains, said Monday it agreed to buy the publisher of Hot Rod, Motor Trend and other special interest publications for $1.2 billion in cash. Shares of Source Interlink tumbled more than 15 percent after the agreement was announced.

Source Interlink last year began exploring options such as acquisitions or putting itself up for sale. The deal to buy Primedia Inc.'s magazine unit expands it into publishing and digital content and comes a month after Los Angeles billionaire Ron Burkle, who controls Source Interlink, was spurned in his efforts to buy media conglomerate Tribune Co.

Bonita Springs-based Source Interlink will purchase Enthusiast Media, which publishes 70 special-interest magazines, including Soap Opera Digest. It also operates 90 associated Web sites. The unit posted 2006 revenue of $524.8 million.

MASSEY ADDRESSES LAWSUIT CHARGES

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Facing an estimated $2.4 billion in threatened fines, Massey Energy Co. on Monday downplayed the environmental harm done by thousands of alleged U.S. Clean Water Act violations at its West Virginia and Kentucky coal operations.

Massey, the nation's fourth-largest coal producer, also predicted no major effect to its bottom line from last week's lawsuit filed by federal prosecutors against the Richmond, Va.-based company and 27 subsidiaries.

But analysts warned investors otherwise in the lawsuit's wake. Massey shares lost 14 percent of their value in afternoon trading Monday, falling $4.25 to $26.08. They recovered somewhat to close at $27.60, or $2.73 lower.

Filed on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the federal lawsuit alleges Massey operations have illegally poured pollutants into West Virginia and Kentucky waterways about 4,633 times within the last six years. These discharges in excess of average monthly or maximum daily permit limits equal about 69,071 days worth of violations of the U.S. Clean Water Act, federal prosecutors contend.

COCA-COLA SETTLES BENZENE LAWSUIT

ATLANTA — The Coca-Cola Co. has agreed to offer replacements to people who purchased two soft drinks to settle lawsuits over ingredients that can form cancer-causing benzene, the plaintiffs said Monday.

As part of the settlement in the cases in New Jersey, Kansas and Florida, the world's largest beverage maker agreed to offer replacement drinks to anyone who purchased Fanta Pineapple or Vault Zero before September 2006, according to a copy of the agreement.

Coca-Cola previously decided to voluntarily reformulate the two beverages in question, said Ray Crockett, a spokesman for the soft drink maker.