Biz Watch

Delay Takes Its Toll
Made in Germany " no longer appears to be a label of engineering excellence. Last week, German Transport Minister Manfred Stolpe canceled the government's €5.4 billion contract for a high-tech motorway toll scheme for trucks after the system operator, Toll Collect, failed to solve technical problems with the trucks' onboard GPS units. The decision to abandon the ill-fated venture — it was scheduled to start in August 2003 before being postponed — is an embarrassment for the top players behind it. Deutsche Telekom and DaimlerChrysler had banked on the system as a possible export.

Since Toll Collect refuses to pay full damages for the €6.5 billion shortfall in revenues, it is also a further fiasco for the government, which rashly earmarked part of that sum for much-needed investments in infrastructure in the 2004 budget. Although the consortium has since declared it has successfully completed

INDICATORS rises in the east Japan 's GDP grew by an annualized rate of 7% in the fourth quarter last year, the highest jump since 1990. A rapid rise in exports to China helped lift growth in the world's second-largest economy to 2.7% in 2003. reverse gear Volkswagen cut its dividend for the first time in more than 10 years, after stalling sales, restructuring and start-up costs pushed down profits at Europe 's biggest automaker by 58% in 2003. juggling the numbers Tonga 's former court jester has agreed to pay the kingdom's government $1 million in compensation after allegedly squandering $26 million from a trust fund under his stewardship.

a test run of the new system on 600 trucks, it's unclear whether the government will restart the contract. In the meantime, the humble windshield stickers will be reintroduced — one German technology that's still reliable.

A Flight Plan For Alitalia
He is Silvio Berlusconi's most trusted bad-weather pilot. Cabinet Under Secretary Gianni Letta, a veteran of thorny negotiations among political factions and labor unions, was chosen last week to end the ongoing stalemate at Alitalia. Italy 's national air carrier has faced a series of strikes (another 24-hour stoppage is planned for March 5) after chief executive Francesco Mengozzi announced a plan in October to cut 2,700 jobs over two years. Letta is expected to seek a temporary solution to avert mass protests ahead of June's European elections. Word that he was on the case, and that the board of the troubled national carrier was willing to step down, sent share prices up nearly 3%. Analysts say Alitalia's long-term survival requires merging with a larger carrier. The company had hoped to piggyback on the Air France-KLM deal, but was told it first needed to move toward privatization. Even Letta might not pull that off. — By Jeff Israely

while you were sleeping
U.S. mobile-phone operator Cingular landed its U.S. rival AT&T Wireless, trumping British bidder Vodafone with a late-night offer of $41 billion. The deal creates the largest wireless carrier in the U.S.

The Bottom Line
	It's not in terms of sharing your money, it's in terms of 'Let my people go.'
		LEONID NEVZLIN, a major shareholder in Yukos, offering to swap his stake in the Russian oil giant in return for the release of former CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky