Google has filed papers with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that say it will sell 14.16 million of its class A shares, but it was close-mouthed about what it would use the money realized from the sale for.

The filing included a warning that it might use the funds for purposes that “do not improve our operating results or increase the value of your investment.” The internet search company has traditionally been very reluctant to disclose its plans in advance, but it did say in its filing that it might use the money from the sale for the acquisition of technology, complementary businesses, or other assets, but that it did not have any agreements to do that at present and that it would put the money in easily liquidated investments until it had a use for it.

At Wednesday’s closing price of $285.10 per share, the sale of more than 14 million shares would bring in over $4 billion in cash for the company, which already had $3 billion cash at the end of June. The new offering will dilute the value of existing shares by about 5 percent, and some analysts theorized that the new stock offering is Google’s way of cashing in on its current high share price.

The US airline sector saw gains on Tuesday on the news that Delta Air Lines will sell one of it’s units and that the outlook for Northwest Airlines is good. In afternoon trading, the American Stock Exchange Airline Index was up 3.9 percent to 49.36 points despite further gains in the price of crude oil, which is damaging profits to the airlines.

Delta announced plans on Monday to sell Atlantic Southeast Airlines to SkyWest for $425 million. The sale comes at a time when Delta, which says it will use the money raised from the sale to pay off debts, is struggling to avoid bankruptcy. Even though Delta warned that the sale might not prevent a bankruptcy, its shares jumped by 11.5 percent on the New York Stock Exchange, to $1.55, on the announcement of the sale.

None of this has stopped ratings agencies from downgrading Delta’s rating. Fulcrum Global Partners put Delta’s rating at “sell”, down from “neutral” and cut it’s target price from $3 down to zero, citing the impending possibility of bankruptcy. At the same time, SkyWest’s rating from FGP was left at “buy”, with a target price of $27 per share.

Meanwhile, shares in Northwest Airlines gained 12.4 percent to $4.69 on the Nasdaq as Morgan Stanley raised that airline’s rating from “equal weight” to “overweight” and put its target price at $9 per share even though a mechanics strike is likely to strike Northwest on August 20.

Agilent Technologies, the world’s biggest testing equipment maker, has announced that it is instituting a restructuring that will see it shed its semiconductor unit, cut 1,300 jobs, and cut costs by $450 million.

Next year, the company also said, it will spin off its system-on-chip and memory test business. Agilent said that these moves would let it focus on its testing and measurement business. Two private equity firms, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Silver Lake Partners, will purchase the company’s chip business for around $2.66 billion, and Netherlands company Philips will pay around $945 million for Agilent’s 47 percent share of LED maker Lumileds Lighting.

Analysts say that Agilent’s business troubles since it was spun off from Hewlett Packard in 2000 has to do with the cyclical nature of its cash-intensive semiconductor business. Despite these troubles, however, Agilent posted third-quarter earnings that were better than analysts had expected due to cost-cutting measures that compensated for a 10 percent decline in sales.

The news of Agilent’s restructuring sent its shares up by around 12 percent by mid-day on Monday in New York, rising $3.15 to $29.56.

Maytag Corp. has declared a $21 per share takeover offer from Whirlpool to be a “superior proposal” and made the recommendation that shareholders vote to reject a rival bid by private-equity group Ripplewood Holdings and its acquisitions unit, Triton.

In a statement released on Friday afternoon, Maytag said that it would violate its fiduciary duty to its shareholders to reject the Whirlpool offer in favor of the smaller Triton bid, which it previously had endorsed.

However, due to Maytag’s rejection of the smaller offer, Triton will receive a $40 million break-up fee to be paid by Whirlpool. The total value of the Whirlpool bid is $2.7 billion. In addition, Whirlpool has offered to pay Maytag $120 million in the event that the deal does not pass regulatory muster, and will also pay up to $15 million to keep on Maytag employees.

The guarantee in the case that regulators do not approve the deal is particularly important, since the company that will be formed by the merger of Maytag and Whirlpool will have a large enough share of the washing machine and kitchen appliance market - 48 percent, compared to 26 percent for General Electric and 20 percent for Electrolux - to draw the attention of antitrust regulators.

Time Warner has settled a lawsuit filed by shareholders over the media giant’s merger with America Online in 2001. After the merger, which cost Time Warner $124 billion, stock values plummeted on stalled growth, prompting the litigation which claimed that AOL had inflated sales figures in order to close the deal.

The settlement will cost Time Warner $2.4 billion dollars, pushing the company to its first losing quarter in nearly three years. The company’s report shows that it lost $321 million in the second quarter as sales dropped 1.1 percent to $10.7 billion on lower film revenues and lost AOL customers.

AOL lost 917,000 customers in the US in the quarter, and film revenues could not match last year’s income from “Lord of the Rings” and “Harry Potter”.

In the same quarter last year, Time Warner’s profit was $777 million. Besides announcing the end of litigation, Time Warner also said on Wednesday that it will mount a $5 billion share buyback. The combined announcements saw share values drop 15 cents to $17.27.

Chain-store sales in the United States rose for the fifth straight week in the last week of July, according to a survey by the International Council of Shopping Centers and UBS.

Consumers, spurred on by hot weather, continued to purchase seasonal products. Back-to-school buying also helped the gain in sales, although sales in this category were off to a slow start due to the weather. According to the report, sales were up 0.9 percent in the week ending July 30, the strongest result since April 16, when sales grew by 1.0 percent. Compared to the same week last year, sales were up 4.9 percent for the week.

Sales had risen 0.4 percent the week ending July 23 this year; they were up 4.2 percent compared to the same week last year. The Weekly Chain Store Snapshot takes its data from weekly sales results issued by a group of major department, discount, and chain stores.