Also. . .

* H.J. Heinz Co. said it will fire 1,900 people, or 4% of the food and pet-food company’s work force, and close a tuna plant in Puerto Rico. The maker of StarKist tuna and 9 Lives cat food said it will take a fiscal fourth-quarter pretax charge of about $300 million for closing the plant. Heinz also said profit from operations in the fiscal third quarter ended Jan. 31 was $227.4 million, or 65 cents a share, little changed from year-earlier profit from continuing operations of $227.2 million, or 63 cents. The company was forecast to earn 65 cents. Sales fell 1.1% to $2.27 billion.

* Kroger Co., the largest U.S. supermarket company, said its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings rose 27% to $400.7 million, or 48 cents a share, from restated profit from operations of $315.7 million, or 37 cents, a year earlier. Sales in the period ended Feb. 3 rose 13% to $12.7 billion.

* Borders Group Inc. reported its fourth-quarter net profit fell 48% after a $42.4-million charge relating to its Internet and Waldenbooks operations. The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based retailer, which lowered its fourth-quarter earnings expectations in January, reported net profit, excluding the charges, of $98.7 million, or 1.23 cents a share, compared with $98.9 million, or $1.21, a year ago. Sales rose 11% to $1.19 billion.

* Electronic Data Systems Corp., the No. 2 U.S. computer-services provider, agreed to buy some Sabre Holdings Corp. assets for $670 million to become the biggest manager of airline-computer systems. EDS also won a 10-year, $2.2-billion contract to manage Sabre’s computer systems. Sabre, the largest travel-reservation company, is selling its business that runs computers for airlines, passenger-rail and car-rental agencies.

* Northrop Grumman Corp. sued rival Lockheed Martin Corp. in December for allegedly backing out of an agreement and keeping the work for itself on the Army’s Theater High-Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD. It was dropped from a $4-billion missile-defense contract managed by Lockheed because its components were too expensive, said the Army’s contracting officer for the program in an affidavit that is part of a lawsuit. Northrop is seeking at least $75,000 in damages, said spokesman William Bodie.

* Coca-Cola Co. said it will start selling an orange juice that isn’t made from concentrate in a move to compete with rival PepsiCo Inc.’s Tropicana Pure Premium brand. Simply Orange Juice Co., a new Apopka, Fla.-based subsidiary of Coca-Cola’s Minute Maid unit, will begin selling the juice to consumers in the northeastern U.S. in May. Separately, the company said former U.S. Labor Secretary Alexis Herman would head an independent task force set up last year after the company settled a 1999 racial bias lawsuit.

* Underwear maker Fruit of the Loom Ltd. filed a reorganization plan with the U.S. bankruptcy court for emerging from Chapter 11. The 130-year-old Chicago-based company had filed for bankruptcy protection in December 1999 after struggling with manufacturing and inventory problems and several quarters of fiscal losses.

* Eastman Kodak Co. said it nominated former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley to be a director after Paul O’Neill resigned to become U.S. Treasury secretary.

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