Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York • Page 57

I Kiis me 8D ROCHESTER. N.Y., WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 1977 BusinessPeople Firms seek to obtain own energy source tender offer statutes in Idaho, Maryland and New York. Meanwhile Sunshine got a temporary court order blocking the Great Western takeover. Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Co. has proposed an exchange of stocks to acquire Dixilyn Corp.

Interactive Data Corp. of Walth-am, a major computer timesharing firm specializing in financial data services, has acquied Dynamics Associates a software and consulting firm based in Cambridge, Mass. Among other takeovers in the news in recent days are: Sharon Steel attempt to buy Foremost-McKesson. Yesterday Sharon Steel withdrew its offer to purchase shares of the giant food conglomerate after a lengthy legal battle. Great Western United Corp.

of Denver has made a tender offer for Sunshine Mining Corp. Great Western, a sugar processor, land developer and restaurant chain operator, got a temporary court order to bypass state about the depletion of oil and gas reserves, are trying a different approach diversification. For example, Union Oil Co. of California last week made an unsolicited offer for Molycorp producers of molybdenum, a metal used in steel alloys. An abundance of capital today is another factor that makes mergers more interesting.

The money has accumulated as a result of increased earnings in the past two years, and a reluctance to invest until the business recovery is more certain. strategist for Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner Smith the nation's largest brokerage house. Some other recent energy-related mergers include International Paper's acquisition of Crude Oil; Union Pacific's takeover of Champlin Oil; and General Electric's purchase of Utah International Inc. and its oil, gas, coal and iron ore operations. In addition, the large oil companies, as expected, are trying to build up their reserves.

Some large oil firms, concerned U.S car sales NEW YORK (AP) Firms trying to acquire their own energy sources are dominating the flood of corporate mergers in the past 12 weeks. "The whole exercise is to get yourself oil and gas reserves, or nuclear reserves, but get yourself energy," says Larry Wachtel, an analyst at Bache Halsey Stuart Inc. And today's depressed stock market offers plenty of bargains for potential buyers, another reason given for the current surge in corporate mergers. "It's very expensive to build new plants. There has been a noticeable absence of capital spending (expansion) at this stage of the cycle," Wachtel notes.

"And there has been a sharp market decline, so the big company that wants to expand looks around and finds it's cheaper to buy a small company than build a new plant." In the first three months of 1977, the number of mergers has increased 25 per cent over the comparable period last year, and the dollar value is up about 25 per cent, according to Victor Niederhoffer, of Niederhoffer Cross Zeckhauser, merger specialists. United Technologies half-billion-dollr offer last week to buy Babcock Wilcox Co. is the most recent major example of a large company trying to make an acquisition in the nuclear energy area. The takeover is turning into a bitter battle. went to court Monday to block the tender offer, and United, after the directors rejected the bid, plans to take its offer directly to shareholders.

United, whose subsidiaries include Pratt Whitney Aircraft, Otis Elevator, Sikorsky Aircraft and Norden, designs and manufacturers high technology products for industrial and government markets. one of America's oldest and largest producers of steam-generating equipment, makes coal-fired boilers and nuclear reactors. "Energy is just a really critical problem, in terms of cost and in terms of plain old supply," agreed Steven Resnick, associate investment "if Consumers borrowing more Edwin P. Przybylowicz 4 Resea rch post filled at Kodak Edwin P. Przybylowicz of 1219 Crown Point Drive, Webster, has been appointed an assistant director of Kodak Research Laboratories, Eastman Kodak Co.

Also, Dr. Joseph A. Merrigan of 1192 Imperial Drive, Webster, will succeed Przybylowicz as director of photographic program development. Przybylowicz joined Kodak in 1956, Merrigan in 1966. William Carey of Middle Road, Henrietta, has joined Wm.

Summer-hays Sons 620 S. Clinton as project engineer. The firm constructs and repairs industrial power plants. Carey has been a boiler inspector and a marketing representative for local insurance companies. Louis M.

Valenti, 596 ElMar Drive, has been promoted to general manager of Conway G.M.C. Trucks 2654 W. Henrietta Road. Previously, he was business manager. Steven Soricone, 8 Larkspur Lane, Irondequoit, has been appointed sales representative for the Van Dussen 1349 University Ave.

His territory is the eastern and southern areas of New York State. iam Reber William Reber, 49 Merryhill Drive, has been appointed account manager at DeCarolis Truck Rental 333 Colfax St. Previously, he was with Leaseway of Rochester. He has spent 14 years in the truck rentalleasing field. Also, Robert Andrews of Seneca Falls has been appointed safety director.

Andrews was with United Parcel Service for 12 years. Robert J. Walsh has been named manager of Max Pies Carpetings. Walsh, of 21 Winhurst Drive, Brighton, joined the store in 1972. Norman Wilcox of Yarmouth Road has been elected a director of Hickey-Freeman Co.

filling the vacancy created when Paul S. Brescia retired last November. Wilcox, assistant vice president of merchandising, joined Hickey-Freeman in 1956. Fred Von Kessel, M.D., will speak at a meeting of the Rochester Claims Association today at 7 p.m. at the Country House, East Rochester.

Dr. Von Kessell, a plastic surgeon, will discuss his specialty. Alfred J. Cirilla Jr. Alfred J.

Cirilla Jr. has been appointed a general agent, with United Agency for the Rochester office of Standard Security Life Insurance Co. of New York, 1 Grove Pittsford. Cirilla, of 27 Huntsman Way, Webster, has been active in the insurance field in Rochester for eight years with New England Life Insurance Co. Easy banking About 1,000 customers daily are using a new computer system at San Diego Federal Savings and Loan.

The IBM memory com Briefly remaining owners AP of common stock. THE DOLLAR DROPPED to yen at the close of Japanese foreign exchange trading yesterday, down 1.15 yen from Monday and the U.S. currency's lowest level in 3'2 years. The latest decline, on top of a 2.6-yeri drop on Monday, meant a 7.3 per cent loss for the dollar in terms of yen since Gannett answers Udall ahead DETROIT (AP) Demand for big cars and a record showing by foreign makes pushed new car sales in March past the one-million mark for the first time in nearly four years, the industry reported yesterday. Domestic sales were 895,319 cars the second best March ever and a 10 per cent improvement from the 815,477 sold a year ago.

The predominantly small, inexpensive imports set a record for any month with sales of 187,700, up 45 per cent from last year to top the previous monthly record of 179,000 set in March 1973. Total sales of 1,083,019 new cars delivered by dealers were up 15 per cent from 945,277 a year ago. It was the first million-plus month since June 1973, when the industry had another boom, and was the fourth highest sales total for any month ever. Analysts said sales of small foreign cars primarily from Japan and big domestic cars were unpreceden-tedly strong, while demand for domestic subcompacts and compacts remained sluggish. General Motors the nation's leading automaker, set a March record with sales of 506,204 new cars.

"And yet, our small cars sold very poorly this month," noted a GM analyst. The analyst said the imports were selling "phenomenally," adding that the foreign makes were grabbing small-car sales from Detroit. "They're taking away from us hand over fist," he said, attributing the importers' success to "a price-value advantage, better fuel economy, a wider range of model offerings and increasingly more exposure to the public." GM sales were up 11 per cent from March 1976. Ford Motor Co. sales were 253,304, a 24 per cent gain from a year ago and the No.

2 maker's best month since July 1973. "March was an exceptionally strong month, and the outlook for the second quarter is very favorable," said Bennett E. Bidwell, Ford's sales vice president. Analysts attributed the strong gains by GM and Ford to tremendous demand for GM's smaller full-size cars and Ford's rest led intermediates. Chrysler Corp.

and American Motors however, remained in sales slumps. Chrysler, which specializes in the compact segment, said sales of 120,053 declined 9 per cent. AMC, which has abandoned the big-car segment, remained in a worsening slump, with sales off 38 per cent sales to 15,758. Four importers outsold AMC in the month, two of them by better than 2-1. Toyota had record sales of 41,162 cars President Carter will unveil his inflation program next week.

Standard Poor's index of 400 industrials fell .21 to 108.87, and 500-stock composite index was down .22 at 98.01. Both indicators established new lows for the year for the second straight day. Bankamerica, the volume leader among NYSE-listed stocks, dropped Local Stocks sharply for the month, and Datsun had record sales of 35,686. Honda sold a record 24,968 cars, and Volkswagen reported sales of 23,594. For the first quarter of 1977, Americans bought 2,619,022 new cars, up 11.5 per cent from a year ago.

Domestic sales of 2,162,622 were up 7 per cent, while import sales of 456,400 were up 42 per cent. Among U.S. makes, GM sales are up 10 per cent for the quarter, and Ford is up 14 per cent. While Chrysler is off 8 per cent and AMC is down 29 per cent. Sales rise at Tapecon Tapecon Inc.

yesterday reported record sales of $3,192,000 and net income of $44,238 or 5 cents a share for 1976. This compares with sales of $2,341,000 and a loss of $110,278 or 14 cents a in 1975. President, Stanley Fulwiler said all the company's operating divisions produced at a favorable profit level and that he was particularly encouraged by the 100 per cent increase in sales volume in the developing Voxcom Division $337,000 in 1976 compared with $156,000 in 1975 and said the increase "reflects growing market acceptance, especially in the field of education." Fulwiler indicated that the firm is continuing to invest most of its pre-tax earnings in the development of Voxcom. "The SEC (Securities Exchange Commission) imposes severe handicaps on small public companies, like Tapecon, to raise equity capital," he said. "As a result, our growth resources are limited to internally generated profits." Checks and balances WHITE PLAINS (UPI) International Business Machines Corp.

yesterday announced a new system that reads checks and accompanying deposit slips optically and processes them automatically. The system can handle up to 100,000 deposit documents daily. It automatically balances the checks against the notations on the deposit slips. IBM said the system speeds up crediting of despoits in large banks by reducing the amount of time needed to reconcile deposit slips and the accompanying checks. to 24 in trading marked by a 171 block at 24 General Dynamics, also active, fell 3 to 54.

The General Accounting Office reported some delays on the company's F16 aircraft. A.H. Robins lost a point to 10 on a company estimate of lower first-quarter earnings. at a Glance puter, called 'ASK', provides information about accounts such as balances, interest, etc. when keyed by passcard.

the start of the year. The Monday closing was 273.975 yen. AP ARA SERVICES the country's leading vending service company, said yesterday it has sold its public vending service operations in the Detroit, northern New Jersey and Buffalo areas to the Steerwell Corp. of North Bergen, N.J. The price was not disclosed.

Philadelphia-based ARA said its vending operations for business, industry and institutions in those areas were not included in the sale. AP editorial policy, different in appearance. "This historic Gannett policy of local autonomy keeps each newspaper free to use its resources as it sees fit as a responsive and responsible local citizen. Thus, each Gannett newspaper, whether a new or a long-standing member of the group, remains as different and as distinctive as the community it serves." Udall said he was submitting legislation to set up a federal commission to study ways to curb economic con centration including the publishing and broadcasting business. Profits up, Neuharth says The government reported some good news yesterday for the nation's business: consumers borrowed at a near-record pace in February.

The Federal Reserve Board said consumer installment credit increased $2.02 billion during the month, up from a gain in January and the second largest monthly increase on record. The largest increase was $2f09 billion in February 1973. AP XEROX CORP. announced yesterday that it has reduced the U.S. sales prices of four copier models, effective on April 1.

Price of the 3100 is $5,500 from the 3107 reduction copier now sells at $3,300 against $10,500 previously; the 3100 LDC (large document copier) to $6,700 from and the 660 table-top copier is lowered to $2,195 from $2,500. THE VENEZUELAN government, concerned about declining oil reserves, has ordered oil production cutbacks aimed at placing the country's output at an average 2.2 million barrels a day this year. A 1976 report released by the Energy and Mines Ministry and published yesterday said that the s.tate-owned holding company Petroleos de Venezuela has been advised that this year's oil production should not exceed the 1976 output, which averaged 2,294,364 barrels a day. AP THE SENATE BANKLNG Committee yesterday approved legislation designed to prohibit American firms from complying with economic boy cotts of foreign countries. The bill was approved after the clearance of an amendment that would substantially weaken the antiboycott provisions.

SONESTE INTERNATIONAL Hotels Corp. announced in Boston yesterday that it is negotiating to become a subsidiary of Loews the New York-based holding company known for its movie theater and hotel operations. The Sonesta announcement said that negotiations were aimed at acquisition by Loews of 500,000 shares of Sonesta common stock at $7 a share. Simultaneously, Loews will, make a $7 a share tender offer to all he's found one. Half, a certified public accountant, in letters to members of Congress, proposes that individual tax collections be put on a staggered, or cycle, basis so that taypayers like corporations would no longer be required to meet a single Corporations have long had the option of declaring their fiscal years and are not forced to follow the calendar year filing demanded of individual taxpayers.

"A quarterly filing plan," Half said, Dow closes a fraction higher Gannett Co. Inc. expects to report that 1977 first-quarter earnings increased from the year-earlier quarter, when net totaled $8.7 million, or 40 cents a share. This forecast was made Monday by Allen H. Neuharth, president and chief executive officer of the company, in a speech to the New York Society of Security Analysts.

"The gains won't be as great as they would have been if the (winter) weather hadn't raised havoc, but under the circumstances, we believe you'll find them quite satisfactory," Neuharth said. He said Gannett should achieve earnings for the year "well within the pattern to which you've become accustomed" on revenue "well in excess of" $500 million. In 1976 Gannett earned $48 million, or $2.22 a share, on revenue of $413.3 Meanwhile, at Gannett's corporate headquarters in Rochester, a statement was released in reply to a speech yesterday by Rep. Morris Udall, who termed the growing concentration in the newspaper business "a dangerous trend" and said the day of "chain store news is upon us." "Under any scrutiny," the company said, "Gannett will be found to be a world of different newspapers different in news content, different in optional' NEW YORK (AP) Blue chip stocks staged a modest upturn yesterday, but the rest of the market continued to decline in the face of inflation worries. The Dow Jones average of 30 big-name industrials, which had fallen 11.80 Monday for its sharpest drop in three months, gained .58 to 916.14.

But losers held a 9-5 edge on gainers at the New York Stock Exchange. Big Board volume increased to 18.33 million shares from 16.25 million Monday. The blue chip group, one of the market's weakest, areas this attracted some support. The "Dow gained more than 2 points at mid-afternoon before settling back toward the close. But elsewhere in the list, analysts noted the continuing adverse effects of concern over inflation.

Monday's drop followed the release of a trade association survey in which corporate buying executives reported a spurt in prices of many industrial raw materials last month. Government figures on wholesale price trends in March are due tomorrow. The White House meanwhile, said 'Make April fax date 1977 "Sales High Low in lOtls High Low Close Chg. 39 Bausch Lomb 252 34 342 34 3' i 2 Bernzomatic 14 13 Curtice Burns 2 13 13 13 86 6714 Eastman Kodak 938 68 67 68 40 32 Gannett 84 33 33 33 78 66 General Motors 1562 67 66V4 66 14 10 Gleason 7 12 12 12 4 3 Neisner 3 3 3 3 20 17 23 18 18 18 16 14 Rochester Tel 27 15 15 15 12 11 Star Markets 19 16 Sybron 59 16 16 16 7 5 Tobin 239 7 6 7 1 16 12 Volplex 2 15 15' 15 -14 58 46 Xerox 1065 47 46 47 By GEORGE MURPHY There are more than 82 million individual personal income tax returns due by April 15 the Internal Revenue Service's most monumental tax collection in history. There has to be a better way, right? Robert Half, president of Robert Half Personnel Agencies, billed as "the world's largest accounting, financial executive and data processing employment specialists," thinks "would relieve the intense pressure on the IRS, which is harassed and overworked at this time every year; on taxpayers who may be frenetic because they cannot get competent professional assistance, and on the accounting profession, which is unable to provide the necessary help due to its own personnel shortages." Many years ago, all corporations closed their books at the end of the' calendar year, but the resulting crush led accountants to campaign for the fiscal year method, now widely used..