The late ticker

Chips are down

INTEL, the manufacturer of Pentium chips, will announce price cuts of up to 40 per cent on older chips tomorrow. The new Pentium Pro with multimedia technology is launched on 6 May.

Reuters US sued

REUTERS' US subsidiary is being sued for $23m by a consultant for allegedly reneging on an agreement to form a proxy-management business.

The suit, filed on Friday in New York, said consultant Anne Faulk would have owned two-thirds of the business, Reuters America a quarter, in exchange for a $3m investment, with a third party owning the rest. Reuters would have purchased Faulk's interest in the business after it began operations.

Shortly after the business proposal was approved by Reuters the company "disavowed" it, the suit said.

Drug ditched

RHONE-Poulenc Rorer Inc has cancelled development of fananserin, a schizophrenia drug forecast to generate up to $350m a year in sales, because of "a lack of efficacy" in trials.

Toyota plant

TOYOTA is likely to build its third European car plant in Bordeaux or Lyons, according to a report in Japan's Daily Yomiuri newspaper.