Delta Air Lines chairman to step down on Jan. 1

Delta Air Lines chief executive Leo F. Mullin, who led the nation’s third-largest airline through the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, a controversy over his pay and the still unresolved task of getting wage concessions from pilots, said on Monday he was leaving the company.

In a move that caught Wall Street and Delta’s pilots union by surprise, Mullin said he would step down after more than six years as chief executive on Jan. 1 and leave as chairman of the Atlanta-based airline’s board after Delta’s annual shareholders’ meeting in late April.

Delta’s board named Gerald Grinstein, a 16-year member of the board, as Mullin’s replacement as CEO.

It said John F. Smith Jr., a former chairman and CEO of General Motors Corp., would take over as chairman of the board in April.

Entertainment

Warner Music finds buyer

A partnership led by former Universal Music chief Edgar Bronfman Jr. has agreed to buy Warner Music Group for $2.6 billion cash, creating one of the world’s largest independent music companies.

The announcement Monday came just hours after London-based EMI Group PLC said it had withdrawn its offer to purchase Warner Music, a unit of the giant media conglomerate Time Warner Inc.

Under terms of the Bronfman group’s deal, Time Warner would retain an option to buy back a minority stake in the company, which is home to such artists as Madonna, R.E.M and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Economy

Business group predicts slight job growth in ’04

The U.S. economy, primed by tax cuts and low interest rates, should grow next year at the fastest pace in two decades, but that will do little to decrease unemployment, top economic forecasters predicted Monday.

The National Association for Business Economics said the vigorous economic growth would continue to be accompanied by continued strong increases in productivity, as corporations under competitive pressures find more ways to expand output without hiring new workers.

But unemployment is seen headed in the right direction, at least, with a NABE forecasting panel predicting the jobless rate will average 5.8 percent in 2004, down from 6 percent currently.

The forecasting panel saw payroll employment rising by 1.1 percent, or about 1.3 million workers, not enough to replace the 2.3 million jobs that have been lost since President Bush took office in January 2001.