Former Dow Chemical CFO, J. Pedro Reinhard, sued Dow yesterday for libel and breach of contract. Dow fired Reinhard after he was accused of holding unauthorized talks to sell the company. Reinhard's complaint seeks compensatory and punitive damages amounting to $75 million.
Several teams of private equity firms are preparing bids for U.S. rural wireless telecoms service provider Alltel in a deal that could be worth around $30 billion. The suitors include Equity Partners and The Blackstone Group; TPG Capital and the private-equity arm of Goldman Sachs Group; and the Carlyle Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. Rumors that Alltel was on the block began last February when the company said it was considering its strategic options during its earnings conference call.
Yahoo is closing its online auctions site in the U.S. after failing to compete with EBay. Less than a week ago Yahoo said it would discontinue its Yahoo Photo service to focus on its faster-growing Flickr site. Yahoo executives have said the company has too many competing products.
India's Flyington Freighters said today that it would cancel its order of freight planes from Boeing after it signed a previously announced $1 billion order for six cargo aircrafts from rival Airbus. Brisk growth of air traffic in India is providing an attractive market for plane makers such as Airbus and Boeing. Airbus has struggled securing contracts with U.S. passenger airlines.