Also on Tuesday, J. Crew, whose customers include Michelle Obama, reported a 14 percent decline in third-quarter net income.
"The small transactions add up," said Rebecca Ward, chief executive of Tealeaf, whose customers include Wal-Mart and Best Buy.
Ciena, whose customers include Sprint and WorldCom, blamed waning demand for equipment that moves information through long-distance optical networks.
Stora Enso, whose customers include The Financial Times and Vogue, has cut production by 9percentt of capacity.
Paul Sadler was employed by Faccenda, another of the UK's largest poultry suppliers whose customers include Asda and Nando's.
And the factory was open for business, with more than 1,000 workers producing clothing for a Bangladeshi apparel conglomerate whose customers include Walmart and Gap.
It is possible that some of these bidders are simply seeking to get a better look at J. Crew, the highflying retailer whose customers include Michelle Obama.
Rolls-Royce, whose customers include Airbus Industrie and Boeing, set off the fall by saying its earnings would be flat through 2001.
The chip designer, whose customers include Apple and Samsung, has added 18p or more than 2% to 863p, making it the biggest riser in a downbeat FTSE 100.
Providian, whose customers include people with weak credit histories, said that earnings were 19 cents to 21 cents a share in the quarter.
Alteri Investors, which invests in troubled retail companies, recently took control of Austin Reed, whose customers include the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde.
