Communications: Troubled Qwest to sell yellow pages division

Qwest Communications International Inc. is sacrificing its yellow pages business, a key revenue generator, to help the heavily indebted communications giant’s new management team stave off bankruptcy.

Cash raised from the $7 billion deal, announced Tuesday, to sell the QwestDex directory business to a group of financiers will be used to pay down some of the company’s $26.6 billion in debt.

Qwest shares jumped nearly 32 percent on the news, rising 71 cents to close at $2.95 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Under the deal, QwestDex will be sold to the Carlyle Group and Welsh, Carson, Anderson and Stowe in a two-stage process designed to speed cash to Qwest, which provides local phone service in 14 states and also is a leading long-distance provider.

Investigation: Stewart lawyers deliver ImClone documents

Lawyers for domestic marketing powerhouse Martha Stewart handed over more than a thousand pages of e-mail and phone records Tuesday to a House investigative panel examining her sale of ImClone stock.

Stewart spokeswoman Allyn Magrino said lawyers delivered “over a thousand pages of documents” to Capitol Hill. The documents were received less than an hour before a 4 p.m. Tuesday deadline set by a House Energy and Commerce investigative subcommittee that is probing Stewart’s stock sale.

The records included e-mail messages from Stewart’s laptop computer and telephone records from Stewart’s company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc.

“They’ve assured us they provided everything, but we won’t know that until we’ve had an opportunity to review all the documents,” said Ken Johnson, committee spokesman.

Wireless carrier: Cingular to eliminate jobs

Cingular Wireless said Tuesday it would cut 2,500 to 3,000 jobs about 8 percent of its full-time work force in a reorganization that will start within its sales department.

Cingular, an Atlanta-based venture owned jointly by SBC Communications and BellSouth, said the cuts would be made throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.

The country’s second-largest wireless carrier has about 36,000 full-time employees. The company also will reduce jobs in marketing, network, finance and human resources.

Aviation: Continental announces changes to fight slump

Continental Airlines announced Tuesday that it is cutting capacity, grounding airplanes and charging for certain services to low-fare customers in order to combat an industry downturn that persists nearly a year after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Houston-based airline, the nation’s fifth largest, said that by August 2003 it will provide 17 percent fewer seats compared to August 2001 levels. It also will ground 11 airplanes in its fleet to save $350 million on an annual basis and $80 million for the rest of 2002.

Capacity will be reduced by 4 percent over the next year, spokesman Rashaan Johnson said.

The move comes after Continental’s larger rivals have cut jobs, capacity or both in response to fewer people flying than before Sept. 11.