BUSINESS BRIEFS
Cerberus likely to win Chrysler
Advertiser Staff and News Services
DETROIT — Private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP likely will be the winning bidder to buy Chrysler Group from DaimlerChrysler AG, and an announcement could come as early as today, a company official said yesterday.
The potential sale comes after nearly two months of study and negotiations by several companies interested in buying DaimlerChrysler's troubled U.S. operations.
The German-American company announced Feb. 14 that all options are open for Chrysler, which lost $1.5 billion last year and is undergoing a restructuring plan that will eventually shed 13,000 jobs.
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the key to the deal is who picks up Chrysler's staggering healthcare liabilities for hourly retirees. The liability is estimated at $19 billion.
WAL-MART WILL SELL SKYPE GEAR
NEW YORK — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is adding an array of Skype phone gear to the electronics section in 1,800 stores, bringing the renegade provider of cheap calling over the Internet to a huge mainstream audience.
The dedicated Skype section will feature handsets, headsets and webcams designed to work with Skype, a provider of free and very cheap long-distance calls, including to phone numbers abroad. Wal-Mart will also sell the first prepaid cards for Skype calls to be sold in this country, the companies were announcing today.
The new section at more than half of Wal-Mart's roughly 3,300 U.S. stores will feature Skype-compatible gear made by Motorola Inc., Plantronics Inc., Logitech International SA, Royal Philips Electronics NV and others.
With tens of millions of regular users, Skype has a huge following, especially among international callers. But the service is not as well known to the general public, even among people with high-speed Internet connections.
