The world this week: Business 17th - 23rd November 2001 Economist.com | HTML Email   Thursday               November                22nd 2001 Subscribe | E-mail & Mobile Editions | Screensaver Visit Economist.com's Business Marketplace for all of your outsourcing needsBusiness service providers: Promote your company to active buyers and subscribe and reply to posted RFPs. Buyers:  Search the directory to find qualified vendors who can meet your needs. Try the directory now    Special report Fighting terrorism  Khatami's thoughts on fundamentalism  Sorting things out in Herat  The al-Qaeda network  Hunting for bin Laden  Evidence of an anthrax-bomb Full contents Subscriptions  Customer  service  As a registered user of Economist.com, you can sign up for or cancel the text and HTML versions of this newsletter or change your e-mail address by  amending your details.  To  stop receiving this newsletter, please visit http://economist.com/members/email.cfm, log in and complete the form.  If you received this newsletter from a friend and you would like to have your own free subscription, please go to the Economist.com registration page  Business this week November 22nd 2001From The Economist print edition The good oil Oil-industry consolidation continues, as Phillips Petroleum and Conoco announced a $15 billion all-share merger. The new company, to be called ConocoPhillips, is likely to be the sixth-biggest producer in the world, based on revenues. See article: Minor majors Normandy Mining, of Australia, wooed by rival bids from America's Newmont Mining and South Africa's AngloGold, rejected AngloGold's all-share bid. This paves the way for a possible sweetened counter-offer from AngloGold, the world's second-largest gold producer.  Enron's financial turmoil worsened. But the Texan energy giant managed to put off repayment of some debts until mid-December. Enron's shares plunged to ten-year lows, casting greater doubt over its plans to be taken over in a rescue bid by smaller rival Dynegy. Three European steel makers, Aceralia, Arbed and Usinor, patched up differences that had threatened their plans to merge, by agreeing to reduce Usinor's stake in the combined entity. The new company will be the world's biggest steel maker. Optimism at last The Dow Jones Industrial Average has climbed by nearly 20% above its lows on September 21st, leading some optimists to announce the emergence of a new bull market. The index came within 23 points of the 10,000 mark before falling back. See article: Messages of hope? Brand names got a boost in Europe. The European Court of Justice handed a victory to jeans maker Levi Strauss when it ruled that sales of so-called âparallel importsâ from outside the European Union's jurisdiction were allowed only with the consent of the trademark owner. The decision ends Levi's three-year battle with Tesco, a British supermarket chain, that sold cut-price Levi's jeans imported from the United States. See article: Trouser suit American industrial production fell for the 13th straight month, the longest continuous decline since the second world war. Other indicators were more optimistic: the Conference Board's index of leading indicators rose by 0.3% in October, raising hopes that the widely expected recession might not last long. See article: Hey, big spender   Schmidtbank, a 170-year-old family-owned German bank, was rescued from some decidedly modern investments by a consortium of bigger peers, including Deutsche Bank, HVB Group, Commerzbank and Dresdner Bank. Schmidtbank has racked up losses from Consors, an online broker, as well as from bad loans to Germany's Mittelstand companies. French connections Shares in Bull, the troubled French computer company, shot up when its chairman, Guy de Panafieu, resigned. The French government pledged euro100m ($88m) to the company, though the European Commission, which is strongly opposed to state subsidies, may yet raise objections to the plan. The chief of Barclays' French operations was questioned by magistrates in Paris as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering between France and Israel. Other banks under scrutiny include BRED, and SociÃ©tÃ© Marseillaise de CrÃ©dit, owned by HSBC. The European Commission levied a euro855m ($750) fine, the largest in its history, against Roche and BASF, and six other companies, for price-fixing in the market for vitamins. Two years ago, both companies were fined by antitrust regulators in America, and a Roche executive was jailed for four months. Percy Barnevik, the Swedish businessman who more or less created ABB, the Swiss-Swedish engineering giant, is to step down as non-executive chairman. Mr Barnevik said his departure would give the company's new management team a clear mandate of their own. Love boats Royal Caribbean Cruises and P&O Princess Cruises, respectively the world's second- and third-largest cruise lines, agreed to merge in a bid to ride out the global economic storm. The deal may frustrate the ambitions of Carnival Cruise Lines, the industry leader, which has made previous overtures to P&O Princess in a failed attempt to expand its European operations. See article: Rough seas ahead KPN, the Dutch telecoms company, said it would issue euro5 billion ($4.4 billion ) in shares at a 50% discount to the current price, to help it reduce a massive debt load acquired to purchase third-generation mobile-phone licences.  A slump in demand has cost jobs at Alcoa, the world's largest aluminium producer, which announced plans to sack 6,500 workers around the world. The company is forecasting a 4.7% drop in aluminium demand this year, the worst in 20 years.  The future of the MBA     In an uncertain economy, find out what rewards - and risks - come from  pursuing an MBA degree. Research the effect of the downturn on MBA  programmes and graduates. Learn what MBAs can do to position themselves  best. Read MBA Outlook, a special report from The Economist Global  Executive today.  Access all the  articles in this newsletter     Subscribe to receive unlimited access to 40 or more premium articles  each week from The Economist magazine and full access to our paid  archive of over 20,000 Economist articles going back to 1997. To enjoy  the complete benefits of a subscription to Economist.com, sign up now for one full year at US$59, a saving of over 50% on the monthly  subscription rate. SEARCH The Economist Economist.com Global Library The web The EIU   Advanced search  GO TO ECONOMIST.COM 	ï¿½ Copyright 2001 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved.Legal disclaimer | Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions