United parent reports $889 million loss

The parent company of ailing United Airlines reported an $889 million third-quarter loss Friday, its second-biggest setback ever, reflecting the continued bleak environment for U.S. carriers.

It was the ninth consecutive quarterly loss for UAL Corp., which is negotiating with its unions to shed billions of dollars in costs in a bid to avoid filing for bankruptcy.

Its only worse quarterly result was a $1.16 billion loss in last year’s third quarter, when the terrorist attacks set off the industry’s current tailspin.

United announced Friday that company and union leaders have set a target of $5.8 billion in labor-cost savings over 5 1/2 years.

Customers of United Airlines, above, join the ticket line Friday at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago.

Agriculture: Farmland leader loses job in cost-cutting measure

The head of Farmland Industries’ meat business has been let go, as the nation’s largest agricultural cooperative tries to cut costs.

William Fielding, who was president of Farmland Refrigerated Foods and an executive vice president of Kansas City, Mo.-based Farmland Industries since February 2000, said the parting was friendly and did not involve any disagreements over operations of the businesses.

Bob Terry, Farmland’s chief executive, who will now oversee Farmland Refrigerated Foods, said the move was meant to cut costs at the cooperative, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection May 31.

Farmland owns a nitrogen fertilizer plant in Lawrence that has been closed since May 2001.

Technology: Lucent seeks approval for reverse stock split

Lucent Technologies said Friday that it would seek shareholder approval for a reverse stock split to boost its stock price, which has averaged below $1 for the past 30 trading days.

The company’s board decided to seek approval for the move, under which a number of shares are combined into one share worth more money, at its next annual meeting in February, a Lucent spokesman said.

The ratio for Lucent’s reverse split will be set by the board at a level that would raise the common share price to a range of $15 to $25, the company said. Lucent shares sold as high as $84 in December 1999.

Wireless telephone: Sprint aims to cut down on subscriber losses

Sprint Corp. announced new pricing plans for wireless customers on Friday, a day after reporting its first-ever subscriber loss.

The Overland Park-based company said the changes were meant to make it easier for customers to use its next-generation wireless technology, PCS Vision, which provides data transmission speeds of up to 144 kilobits per second.

Under the new pricing plans, the cost of PCS Vision no longer is tied to how much data a customer uses. Instead, customers can receive unlimited data usage for a set fee.