Reluare luni, 29 august 1994

Watching People React To the News of the Day

Date: 29 August 1994

By Walter Goodman

Walter Goodman

Talk shows have a variety of appeals. From some you can learn about this and that by listening to people with more information than you possess. Others offer the satisfaction of feeling superior to vox populi. And there are those that just provide the pleasure of watching one's peers mix it up on matters of moment. "Talk Back Live," the "daily, live, interactive town meeting," to quote the press release, which joined the CNN lineup last week, is in the mix-it-up mode. Susan Rook, presiding, is all bustle-bustle as she fields the opinions not only of a dozen or so audience members but also of callers, faxers and computerniks, all of whom she greets by first name. (Given her constant bending on the first show to put the microphone in the face of participants seated at this studio in the round, one feared for Ms. Rook's knees. Perhaps at her joint specialist's advice, on the second show her guests rose. On Wednesday she stood for some and bent to others; very risky.)

Full Article

Times Picks Business Editor

Date: 30 August 1994

John M. Geddes, a former national news editor of The Wall Street Journal, has been named the business editor of The New York Times, Joseph Lelyveld, the executive editor, announced yesterday. Mr. Geddes, 42, will preside over a planned expansion of The Times's business news coverage.

Full Article

Beyond the Body Count: Qualifying the Quantity Of On-Screen Violence

Date: 30 August 1994

By Walter Goodman

Walter Goodman

Watching "Kind Hearts and Coronets" and "The Ladykillers" recently, courtesy of Channel 13 and Bravo, I found myself musing over the use that the scholars dedicated to adding up incidents of violence on television could make of such comedic delights. These beauties from Britain were never charged with fomenting assaults and batteries 40 years ago, but if accountings of mayhem had been in fashion, they would have made the accountants' day. Violence is the essence of these movies, "Kind Hearts" being an inventory of murders committed in quest of a dukedom and "The Ladykillers" a crime spoof that ends with five of the six leading players being terminated in about as many minutes. True, the rendering is understated by today's standards -- you don't get to see any gouts of blood -- but the quantifiers would still feel obliged to include the humorous send-offs in their dire compilations.

Full Article

NATIONSBANK BUYS EXPRESS AMERICA'S LOAN SERVICING

Date: 30 August 1994

By Bloomberg News

Bloomberg News

The Nationsbank Corporation signed a definitive agreement yesterday to buy the right to service $6.5 billion in mortgages from the Express America Holdings Corporation for $85 million. The sale will result in a pretax profit of $20 million for Express America, which is based in Scottsdale, Ariz., and is one of the largest wholesale mortgage companies. The sale of the servicing to the Nationsbanc Mortgage Corporation will let Express America concentrate on its main line of business: buying and selling mortgage loans.

Full Article

COMPAQ IS NOW CUTTING PRICES IN EUROPE, TOO

Date: 30 August 1994

By Bloomberg News

Bloomberg News

The Compaq Computer Europe cut its prices for personal computers by as much as 29 percent, after making similar cuts in the United States and Canada. It was not clear if IBM Europe would follow Compaq's lead, though analysts expected an announcement soon. In the United States, the International Business Machines Corporation reduced its prices on Aug. 25, nine days after the Compaq Computer Corporation, based in Houston, did.

Full Article

SPECTRUM INFORMATION OFFICER LEAVES AND SELLS SHARES

Date: 30 August 1994

By Bloomberg News

Bloomberg News

An officer and former director of Spectrum Information Technologies Inc., Werner Pleus, has sold 244,286 shares of the wireless data company's stock and agreed to leave the company. "Werner and Spectrum have mutually agreed that Werner's employment has been terminated," Chris Consentino, a company spokesman, said yesterday, declining to provide details. Mr. Pleus is one of several current and former officers of Spectrum named as defendants in a shareholders' class-action suit filed last year. The insiders sold stock last year after Spectrum's shares more than doubled following the surprise hiring of John Sculley, the former chairman of Apple Computer, on Oct. 18. The shares plunged in February after Mr. Sculley quit. Mr. Pleus said he had stepped down as director of investor relations in June, and has not held a formal title with the company since then. Mr. Pleus had resigned from Spectrum's board on March 28.

Full Article

FIRST FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT IN WESTERN UNION BIDDING

Date: 30 August 1994

By Bloomberg News

Bloomberg News

The First Financial Management Corporation said yesterday that it expected to submit a bid to buy Western Union Financial Services Inc. in the bankruptcy court-supervised auction of the company, which is a unit of the New Valley Corporation. First Financial, a financial services firm based in Atlanta, joins the First Data Corporation of Hackensack, N.J., and the leveraged-buyout firm Forstmann Little & Company as companies expected to make bids. First Financial said Western Union would give it a toehold in the money-transfer business. Potential buyers have until Friday to submit bids.

Full Article

BROCK CANDY STOCK JUMPS ON TALK OF MERGER OR SALE

Date: 30 August 1994

By Bloomberg News

Bloomberg News

The stock of the Brock Candy Company closed up 41 percent yesterday after the candy maker said it was in talks to combine businesses with another company or sell itself. Shares of the company, which is based in Chattanooga, Tenn., and makes "gummi" candies, rose $4, to $13.75, in Nasdaq trading. Brock Candy said it retained the Robinson-Humphrey Company of Atlanta to help review any proposals. The company did not say which individual or company it was in talks with. It said no formal offer had been made. Company officers could not be reached for comment. The announcement comes 17 months after Brock first sold stock to the public.

Full Article

MARINE HARVEST MAY SELL ITSELF FOR $124 MILLION

Date: 30 August 1994

By Bloomberg News

Bloomberg News

Marine Harvest International Inc., a salmon and shrimp producer, said yesterday it was talking to an unnamed party about selling itself for $10.50 a share. Shares of the company, based in Woodbridge, N.J., closed up 50 cents, at $9.375, in trading on the American Stock Exchange. "A number of significant matters have yet to be resolved and, as a result, no agreement has yet been reached, nor can the company give any assurance that an agreement will be reached," the company said. With about 11.8 million shares outstanding, such a buyoutwould be worth around $123.9 million.

Full Article

Metrocall Deal

Date: 30 August 1994

By Bloomberg News

Bloomberg News

Metrocall Inc. said today that shareholders had approved the acquisition of Firstpage U.S.A. Inc. for about $105 million in stock and the assumption of debt. Firstpage shareholders have already approved the sale, which is expected to close within two weeks.

Full Article