BUSINESS BRIEFS
Topps Meat closes 6 days after recall
Advertiser Staff and News Services
NEWARK, N.J. — Topps Meat Co. yesterday said it was closing its business, six days after it was forced to issue the second-largest beef recall in U.S. history and 67 years after it first opened its doors.
The decision will cost 87 people their jobs, Topps said.
On Sept. 25 Topps began recalling frozen hamburger patties that may have been contaminated with the potentially fatal E. coli bacteria strain O157:H7. The recall eventually ballooned to 21.7 million pounds of ground beef.
Thirty people in eight states had E. coli infections matching the strain found in the Topps patties, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. None have died.
The Topps recall raised questions about whether the U.S. Agriculture Department should have acted quicker to encourage a recall.
UAW-CHRYSLER TALKS IN HIGH GEAR
DETROIT — The United Auto Workers union has ratcheted up talks with Chrysler LLC and plans to work through the weekend to negotiate a new four-year contract agreement, a person briefed on the talks said yesterday.
The person, who requested anonymity because the talks are private, said Ford Motor Co. has been told by the UAW that talks with Chrysler have intensified. General Motors Corp. already has reached a tentative agreement with the UAW that GM workers are now voting on.
UAW spokesman Roger Kerson said he had no comment on the talks with Chrysler. Chrysler spokeswoman Michele Tinson and Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans also said they had no comment.
The UAW's contracts with Chrysler, Ford and GM were originally set to expire Sept. 14. The UAW selected GM as the lead company and strike target in the negotiations and reached a tentative agreement Sept. 26 after a two-day strike. The agreement won't go into effect until it's ratified by GM workers, a process expected to end Wednesday. Chrysler and Ford have been extending their contracts indefinitely.
The UAW represents about 49,000 hourly workers at Chrysler, making it the smallest of the domestic automakers. The company also has around 78,000 retirees and surviving spouses represented by the UAW.
RBS-LED GROUP IN MAJOR TAKEOVER
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — A consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland PLC is all but certain to acquire ABN Amro Holding NV in the largest takeover in the history of the financial industry, signaling the likely end for one of Europe's largest banks.
An $88.1 billion cash-and-share offer from rival Barclays PLC was withdrawn yesterday in a widely expected concession after the British bank garnered only a fraction of the Dutch bank's shares.
The RBS-led group is expected to cut up the 183-year-old ABN Amro in a $99.9 billion deal. Fortis NV of Belgium wants the bank's Dutch operations, Banco Santander Central Hispano SA of Spain wants its Brazilian and Italian arms, and RBS wants the rest, including ABN's investment banking arm.
Barclays was expected to keep the bank largely intact.
3RD-QUARTER LOSS FOR MERRILL LYNCH
NEW YORK — Investment bank Merrill Lynch & Co. said yesterday credit and mortgage woes will lead it to post a third-quarter loss, as it takes almost $5 billion in writedowns in the wake of a credit crunch that paralyzed Wall Street this summer.
The bulk of the losses will come from marking down the value of complex instruments known as collateralized debt obligations or CDOs, and from declines in subprime mortgages — loans given to customers with poor credit history.
The $5 billion writedown essentially erases more than half of Merrill Lynch's net income during the prior 12 months. The credit problems have not been limited to just Merrill Lynch though — the world's largest financial institutions collectively lost more than $20 billion this summer as investors pulled back from all but the safest propositions.
