Business Digest

March 16, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Agreement reached to close auto plant

FREMONT, Calif.

The United Auto Workers union has reached a tentative agreement to shut down California’s sole remaining auto plant, which employs 4,600 people.

The terms weren’t disclosed Monday but will include payouts for workers at the Fremont-based Nummi plant, which is slated to close April 1. The agreement is subject to a ratification vote by the plant’s workers.

Nummi was a joint venture between Toyota and General Motors Co., but GM pulled out of the alliance. Toyota plans to move production of the Corolla sedan to Canada and Japan and the Tacoma pickup truck to Texas.

AK Steel files suit against ex-workers

WEST CHESTER, Ohio

AK Steel Holding Corp. has filed a lawsuit alleging three ex-employees of its Rockport, Ind., plant stole company trade secrets.

The lawsuit filed Thursday says Donald Earley resigned as a senior process engineer last year and accepted a job with ThyssenKrupp Steel USA.

The lawsuit claims Earley accessed confidential information and trade secrets from AK Steel’s computer systems and contacted AK Steel employees Dona Ashby and Jonathan Salisbury for confidential information. The suit says Ashby and Salisbury also received ThyssenKrupp job offers and resigned.

Apple to charge $100 for replacing iPad

CUPERTINO, Calif.

Apple says it will replace iPads with dying batteries for about $100.

Apple Inc.’s iPhone and iPad both have sealed-in batteries that owners can’t replace themselves. As it does with the iPhone, Apple says it will give people whose iPads have a “diminished ability to hold an electrical charge” an entire new unit. The service will cost $99 plus $6.95 in shipping charges.

Blockbuster, Sheetz form partnership

DULUTH, Ga.

Kiosk operator NCR Corp. said Monday it would place Blockbuster Express-branded DVD rental kiosks at nearly all 365 Sheetz convenience stores by the end of March.

The partnership represents the first Blockbuster kiosk deployment in six new markets located throughout North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, it said. DVDs from the kiosks can be rented for $1 a night with the swipe of a credit card.

Blockbuster, a struggling video-rental chain, is setting up video-rental kiosks to better compete with those operated by Coinstar Inc.’s Redbox.

Housing-market index goes down

LOS ANGELES

Harsh winter weather and competition from deeply discounted foreclosures are putting a damper on sales prospects for homebuilders.

The National Association of Home Builders said Monday its housing-market index, which tracks industry confidence, slipped this month by two points to 15, back to its January level.

Readings below 50 indicate negative sentiment about the market. The last time the index was above 50 was in April 2006.

Associated Press