PRESS DIGEST - New York Times business news - June 24
June 24 (Reuters) - The following were the top stories in the New York Times business pages on Wednesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
* After all those losses and bailouts, rank-and-file employees of Citigroup Inc (C.N) are getting some good news: their salaries are going up. The troubled banking giant, which to many symbolizes the troubles in the nation's financial industry, intends to raise workers' base salaries by as much as 50 percent this year to offset smaller annual bonuses, according to people with direct knowledge of the plan.
* After months of bitter struggle that included a threat to shut down The Boston Globe, the New York Times Co (NYT.N) and the paper's largest union reached a tentative contract settlement on Tuesday night, with employees agreeing to significant cuts in wages, benefits and job security.
* Boeing Co (BA.N) said on Tuesday that it would again delay the first flight of its new jet, the 787, the latest setback in a program that is considered crucial to the plane maker's future.
* Methodist University Hospital in Memphis acknowledged Tuesday that it had performed a liver transplant on Steven Jobs, the chief executive of Apple Inc (AAPL.O).
* One of the last major legal battles set off by the demise of the leveraged buyout boom was settled on Tuesday for a combination of $1.7 billion in cash and financing. A week after trial began in a Texas state courtroom, Huntsman Corp (HUN.N) and the two banks it was suing over a failed takeover agreed to settle their dispute.
* Medtronic Inc (MDT.N) disclosed on Tuesday that it had received a Justice Department subpoena seeking information about its ties with a company consultant, a former Army doctor accused of falsifying a favorable medical journal article about a Medtronic bone growth product called Infuse.
* Three automakers, including Ford Motor Co (F.N), will get the first $8 billion from a $25 billion loan program intended to accelerate development of more fuel-efficient vehicles, the national energy secretary said Tuesday.
* A Senate investigative committee has concluded that excessive speculation by commodity index investors has inflated the price of wheat and distorted trading in the wheat futures markets.
* A small biotechnology company facing possible bankruptcy and liquidation has been awarded a $35 million federal contract to develop a faster way to make vaccines for pandemic influenza. The award of the contract to the Protein Sciences Corporation of Meriden, Connecticut, was announced on Tuesday by the Department of Health and Human Services.
* The Antiguan government fired its top banking regulator on Tuesday after the United States government asked that he be detained for extradition on charges of helping the Texas billionaire Allen Stanford cover up a $7 billion fraud.
* Japan's exports continued to tumble in May, with even shipments to China showing little sign of improvement, suggesting that hopes for a quick recovery in global demand may be premature.
* Intel Corp (INTC.O) and Nokia (NOK1V.HE) said on Tuesday that they planned to jointly create mobile computing products that would meld the features of phones and computers.
* The software maker Oracle Corp (ORCL.O) said on Tuesday that sales fell 5 percent and its profit fell 7 percent from March through May, in part because of a stronger dollar.
* Verified Identity Pass, a company that promised to speed passengers through airport security checkpoints for an annual fee, has shut down.
* The House is moving toward a vote Friday on energy and climate change legislation, with several significant issues still unresolved but with Democratic leaders expressing confidence that they will muster the votes to pass it.
* Ikea said Tuesday that it was suspending further investment in Russia, apparently because of pervasive corruption and demands for bribes.
* A real estate group, the National Association of Realtors, said on Tuesday that sales of previously occupied homes rose modestly from April to May, the third monthly increase this year, but that signs of any housing recovery were fragile at best.
* MySpace, the online music sharing and networking service owned by News Corp (NWSA.O), said Tuesday that it planned to close at least four international offices and eliminate two-thirds of its staff outside the United States as it tries to adjust to slowing audience growth and falling advertising.
* Toyota Motor (7203.T) shareholders approved the appointment of the company founder's grandson, Akio Toyoda, as president on Tuesday, hoping that reaching back to the automaker's family roots would help steer the manufacturer out of its worst ever crisis.
