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BRIEFLY

 
Published July 10, 2003|Updated Sept. 1, 2005

MESSIER SEVERANCE OFF AGAIN: A Paris court on Wednesday froze the payment of a $23.5-million severance package that a U.S. arbitration panel awarded to ousted Vivendi Universal chairman Jean-Marie Messier, saying proper procedures weren't followed, Paris' stock exchange said. At the request of France's stock market regulator, known as the COB, the court said the payment should not be made until shareholders at the French media company vote on the matter. Last month, a New York arbitration tribunal rejected Vivendi's claim that the package should be rejected because it was never approved by the board.

ROADWAY EXECS PROFIT: Roadway Corp.'s top four executives will collect at least $35-million in cash and stock from the $966-million takeover of their company by smaller rival Yellow Corp., the second-biggest U.S. trucking company by sales. Chairman Michael Wickham and three other Roadway executives together hold 735,225 shares, including options, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Those holdings are worth $35.3-million at the offer price of $48 a share.

NEXTEL, SPRINT SUED: Cellular giants Nextel and Sprint are improperly adding fees to the bills of their Florida customers, according to lawsuits filed last week in Palm Beach County Circuit Court. The suits are part of a growing wave of popular discontent over the recent proliferation of telephone company surcharges, consumer activists say. The lawsuits allege that Nextel and Sprint misrepresented some of their fees as being government-mandated.

VAN PLANT DELAYED: DaimlerChrysler AG has postponed plans for a van factory that would create 3,300 jobs in coastal Georgia, but state officials said they are confident it will get built _ eventually. Georgia officials had expected DaimlerChrysler's board of directors to meet Wednesday and approve the $754-million plant to be built on a 1,500-acre site in Pooler, 12 miles west of Savannah. It would manufacture Sprinter cargo vans. Instead, it announced that a vote would not take place, citing economic conditions.

Earnings

Yahoo Inc.

The owner of the world's most-used Internet sites said second-quarter profit more than doubled as sales of advertising rose. Yahoo's profit, the highest in three years, fell short of some analysts' forecasts, and the company's shares fell as much as 6.4 percent in after-hours trading.

2ndQtr Year Ago

Revenue $321.4-mil $225.8-mil

Net Income $50.8-mil $21.4-mil

Per Share 8 cents 3 cents