Also

* Steelmaker Nucor Corp. offered to buy most of the assets of rival Birmingham Steel Corp. for $500 million, the latest proposal in an attempt to consolidate the industry.

* Qualcomm Inc. named Chief Operating Officer Anthony Thornley president, possibly setting him up to succeed Chief Executive Irwin Jacobs. Qualcomm also made William Keitel chief financial officer, succeeding Thornley in the job he held since joining the San Diego company in 1994.

* Lucent Technologies Inc., which recently hired Patricia Russo from Eastman Kodak Co., said it will pay its new chief executive more than double what it paid her predecessor last year. Russo will be paid a base salary of $1.2 million for at least the first two years of her five-year contract, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Including a $1.8-million bonus, Russo will earn $3 million in fiscal 2002, more than twice what Chairman Henry Schacht was paid in 2001.

* Skechers U.S.A. Inc. said net income fell 80% to $1.97 million, or 5 cents a share. The Manhattan Beach shoe maker’s sales rose 24% to $214.1 million.