AIRLINES

KLM Sues Northwest Airlines Over Takeover Defense: Northwest Airlines Corp. said its largest shareholder, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, has challenged the validity of its “poison pill” takeover defense in Delaware Chancery Court. The “pill,” adopted at a Nov. 16 board meeting, limits KLM’s ability to exercise stock options it got in return for helping St. Paul, Minn.-based Northwest Airlines avoid Bankruptcy Court in 1993. KLM called the lawsuit, which was filed in Wilmington, Del., against several Northwest directors, a “regrettable but natural consequence” of the board’s action. It previously had threatened to sue. A similar lawsuit challenging a change in the agreement between KLM and other members of Northwest’s 1989 leveraged buyout is pending in a New York state court.