Newsday (Nassau Edition) from Hempstead, New York • 55

BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY IN BRIEF HirketPro computer Saturday A Sunday Sept 2 3 (isonmm) Mf Sports Plus-Lake Grove, NY Wit tt IFtt ttttl WIIIWIIJMI 1 wamarktiiriciu 't- AC PHOTO Strike-ready flight attendants surround Association of Flight Attendants lawyer David Borer and union officer Mollie Reiley -during a news conference yesterday in Bloomington, Minn. 6Y2 years in a New York jail for fixed-rate mortgages, a popular Advertise Your Event Here Contact Debbie Connor 631-843-2604 I JHISSUN DAYlONLYj NN EWSDAY COURT: ATTENDANTS MAY STRIKE. A federal judge will permit Northwest Airlines flight attendants to strike the carrier, a move that the company, which is trying to come out of bankruptcy, says could jeopardizeits survival. A strike by the airlines 9300 flight attendants may put 34,000 jobs at risk and force the company to liquidate. Northwest has said.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper in Manhattan yesterday denied the airlines request to block a strike. Northwest said it will appeal The flight attendants have said they plan sporadic, unannounced work stoppages starting next Friday after a court authorized the airline to impose pay and benefit cuts. Northwest, based in Eagan, made the cuts July 31 as part of an effort to reduce annual labor expenses by $L4 billion. Flight attendants would absorb $195 million of the cuts.

Northwest claims a strike would violate the federal Railway Labor Act, which governs labor relations. The union disagrees. DOLAN MAY DROP OUT OF LICENSE AUCTION. Charles Dolan, Cablevision Systems Corp.s chairman, is' close to dropping out of a federal auction of licenses to provide wireless services as bidding topped $11 billion. Dolan Family Holdings made no bids in rounds 21 through 23 of the auction by the Federal Communications Commission, FCC data show.

The Dolan group must bid in the next round to remain eligible under the auction rules. The Dolan group earlier was the most aggressive in bidding for a license covering the U.S. Northeast, offering $536.7 million three days ago. T-Mobile USA Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc.

are the top bidders, preliminary FCC results show, underscoring the need for mobile companies to expand coverage. KEYSPAN SHAREHOLDERS OK NATIONAL GRID DEAL. Natural gas and electricity supplier KeySpan Corp. said shareholders at its annual meeting in Brooklyn yesterday approved its planned $73 billion acquisition by UJC-based National Grid Pic, which owns utilities in upstate New York and Massachusetts. The takeover plan is generating concern among members of Local 1049 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, who yesterday said members were demonstrating to call on KeySpan to guarantee that it wont cut jobs.

KeySpan, the biggest supplier of gas in the Northeast with about 2 6 million customers, had 9,700 employees as of Dec. 3L The company is the main supplier of electricity on Long Island and generates about 25 percent of New York Citys power. FINANCIER PLEADS GUILTY TO CRIMINAL CHARGES. Financier Martin Armstrong pleaded guilty yesterday to criminal charges after spending choice for refinancing, averaged 620 percent this week, unchanged from last week. LEGG MASON TAKES TIMES SQUARE.

Money manager Legg Mason Inc. is to lease six floors in the New York Times building being built near Times Square, becoming the 52-story towers largest outside tenant, developer Forest City Enterprises Inc. said yesterday. Baltimore-based Legg Mason will lease about 200,000 square feet, Cleveland-based Forest City said. Legg Mason will occupy the 45th through 50th floors, and agreed to the design and construction of a rooftop conference center and landscaped garden on the 52nd floor.

ECONOMIC INDEX DROPS. The index of leading economic indicators unexpectedly dropped in July, yet another sign that economic growth will continue to slow over the next three to six months. The 0.1 percent decline followed a 0.1 percent gain in June, the Conference Board, a Manhattan-based research group, said yesterday. The index dropped at an annual rate of 1.4 percent in the last six months, the worst performance since February 200L DELL REPORTS LOSS. Dell Inc.

yesterday posted disappointing second-quarter earnings amid a regulatory probe. The company also announced an expanded partnership to put Advanced Micro Devices Inc. computer chips into a new line of Dell servers and desktop PCs as early as next month. The deal was revealed as the Round Rock, Texas-based companys second-quarter profit fell 36 percent to $605 million, and days after it voluntarily recalled 4J million potentially flammable batteries supplied by Sony Corp. Dell also said it is cooperating with an informal investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission over accounting and financial reporting matters for certain past fiscal years." Net income fell to $502 million, or 22 cents a share, from $L02 billion, or 41 cents, a year earlier, Dell said.

Sales rose 5 percent to $14.1 billion. Compiled from wire reports civil contempt, U.S. District Judge John Keenan said at the start of a hearing in Manhattan. Armstrong, the former money manager and founder of Princeton Economics International Ltd, was accused of defrauding Japanese investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars. In a related civil case, Armstrong was jailed in 2000 by the judge overseeing a civil suit by the Securities and Exchange Commission after he failed to surrender $14.9 million in gold bars and rare coins.

Armstrong said he didn't have them. Keenan said he hasnt decided whether to credit Armstrong for his time behind bars on the contempt citation when he's sentenced Jan. 3 on the conspiracy charge. U.S. authorities said Armstrong hid huge trading losses by using funds from new investors to pay off old ones.

TIME WARNER TO RESTATE RESULTS. Time Warner Inc. said yesterday it will restate its financial results after an independent auditor found problems with the way it accounted for a number of transactions in 2000 and 2001, mainly involving online advertising. The restatement came as part of a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over accounting problems at its America Online unit The Manhattan-based company also agreed to pay a $300 million penalty. The SEC settlement also required Time Warner to appoint an independent examiner to review historical accounting for several transactions, including three cable programming-affiliation agreements with related online advertising elements.

With that review complete, the company will restate results going back to 2000. MORTGAGE RATES FALL Mortgage giant Freddie Mac said yesterday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages fell to 652 percent this week from 655 percent last week. That was the lowest level for 30-year mortgages since they averaged 6.49 percent the week of April 13. Mortgages had been rising since April, hitting a more than four-year high of 630 percent the week of July 20 before easing down. Rates on 15-year, dwA 7 we besbeA HicVs to orgew ize.

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