Also

J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. and five other large U.S. trucking companies plan to combine freight management units into a jointly owned Internet business to help lure shipments from rivals and cut costs. J.B. Hunt will join Swift Transportation Co., Covenant Transport Inc., M.S. Carriers Inc., U.S. Xpress Enterprises Inc. and Werner Enterprises Inc., with each investing $5 million in the venture, called Transplace.com. Their combined 1999 freight management revenue was $650 million.

* Xerox Corp., the world’s biggest copier maker, formed an alliance with Japan’s Sharp Corp. to make and sell ink-jet printers that it says are 50% faster than products from competitors such as Hewlett-Packard Co. Xerox, Sharp and Fuji Xerox, the company’s venture with Fuji Photo Film Co., will invest $2 billion in the alliance over five years for research, manufacturing and marketing. Xerox shares fell $1.25 to close at $23.25 on the NYSE.