Business briefs

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WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on Friday defended the Fed's decision to delay cutting interest rates until January despite growing signs of an economic slowdown. He said acting sooner could have caused even more trouble down the road.

Greenspan, testifying at a House Budget Committee hearing, rejected the view of some critics that the dramatic slowdown occurred in part because the Fed botched monetary policy.

Appellate court tosses cable limits

WASHINGTON -- A federal appeals court on Friday threw out government-imposed restrictions on the number of subscribers that a cable operator can serve.

A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia also voted to invalidate limits on how many channels cable operators can fill with programming in which they have a financial interest.

The court concluded that the Federal Communications Commission could not support its reasoning for the restrictions, which were aimed at preserving diversity in the programming that consumers watch on their TV sets.

UPS expanding with

retail franchise buy

ATLANTA -- United Parcel Service Inc. said Friday it has agreed to buy retail shipping franchiser Mail Boxes Etc. in a bid to capture a bigger share of the growing business in home and small-office shipments.

Mail Boxes Etc., a privately held subsidiary of U.S. Office Products, has franchised 4,300 stores, including 900 in 29 countries outside the U.S. Terms of the all-cash deal for San Diego-based Mail Boxes Etc. were not disclosed.

"This is another way to broaden our presence on the retail side," UPS spokesman Norman Black said. "The growth of e-commerce has made it very clear to us that the residential and small-office, home-office part of the market is going to continue to expand."

Market forces Boston e-adviser to cut back

BOSTON -- Sapient Corp. became the latest e-consultant forced into major cutbacks by the dot-com downturn Friday, announcing it would cut 720 jobs, or 20 percent of its work force, and warning it won't make its expected first quarter profit.

The company said it now expects first-quarter 2001 revenues to be about 20 percent below the consensus estimate of $136 million, with loss, excluding one-time items such as restructuring costs, of 3 to 5 cents per share. Analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial had expected a profit of 9 cents per share.

Bargain hunters keep

it safe, buoying Dow

Enticed by bargain prices and heartened by the possibility of a tax cut, investors did some tentative buying Friday, limiting most of their purchases to safer blue chips.<