The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • Page 42

Page 2c Tuesday, March 21, 2000 The Sun Business Broadcasting Business Digest Sinclair faces $300 million countersuit In the Region Ex-cxecutivc, rival firm object of $40 million suit and Rose Shanis Financial Services LLC. Elsewhere Contact lens Arm Wesley Jessen to buy operating officer of USA Networks said Sinclair had named him in the suit because of his ties to the Baltimore area; pulling Baker into the litigation would help ensure that the case would be tried on Sinclair's home turf. "They did attach me as a way to get them into a Baltimore courtroom," Baker said. Sinclair declined to comment on the countersuit yesterday. Walter Berger, Emmis' chief financial officer, said he hoped the taatter would not have to go all the way to court.

"Our hope and expectation is that we'll be able to resolve this. We'd like to be able to settle this," Berger said. Labor relations tract. True, the contract had stipulated that Baker could designate "any one or more persons or entities" to receive his station rights, but Sinclair insisted in its lawsuit that this provision was merely "an agreement to agree" and "is so vague as to be unenforceable." The intention of the agreement, Sinclair said, was to allow Baker to transfer the stations to a company that he owned or controlled, not to an outside entity like Emmis. The Emmis-Baker countersuit, filed late Friday afternoon in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County and announced yesterday, accuses Sinclair of among other things breaking its word, interfering with the contract between Emmis and Baker, and engaging in "gross mismanagement" of the disputed stations.

The countersuit contains 11 counts, seeking no less than $100 million in compensatory damages. The filing also seeks $200 million in punitive damages. In addition, the suit seeks an order that the sale proceed and the immediate appointment of a special receiver to manage the St. Louis stations, as well as binding declarations that the transferral terms in Baker's employment contract were "neither vague nor ambiguous" and that Emmis was a proper transferee. Baker, now president and chief Boeing employees return to work, ending 40-day strike By Mark Ribbing SUN STAFF A dispute involving Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc.

and one of its former top executives has entered a new phase. Two months after Cockeysville-based Sinclair filed a $40 million lawsuit against Barry Baker and Emmis Communications Corp. over the rights to a group of St. Louis radio and television stations, Baker and Emmis have responded with a $300 million countersuit against Sinclair. The whole affair began when Baker, the head of Sinclair's radio and television operations, resigned from the company Feb.

18, 1999. Under the terms of his employment contract with Sinclair, Baker could buy the company's stations in either of two markets: St. Louis or Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C. He picked the St. Louis properties, which consisted of six radio stations and one television station.

On June 24, Baker sold the station rights to Emmis, a Sinclair rival. The deal was announced the next day. In Sinclair's view, the transfer of the rights to Emmis violated the terms of Baker's employment con Purchase Pre-owned Work Stations at Great Savings! Engineers, technicians celebrate new contract ASSOCIATED PRESS RENTON. Wash. With a victory celebration pep rally, Boeing Co.

engineers and technicians returned to work yesterday after a 40-day strike that was one of the largest by white-collar workers in the United States. "Thanks to you, no adversary of workers will ever underestimate the staying power of women and men who just happen to work with their brains instead of their backs," AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka told some 2,000 workers who gathered for the rally. 'This strike will go down in history as a turning point in labor-management relations," Trumka said. "Boeing thought you wouldn't stick together, but you did. Boeing thought you wouldn't last, but you did." Boeing, the world's biggest maker of jet aircraft, missed at least 15 airplane deliveries and work on some government contracts fell behind during the walkout by 15,000 to 17,000 workers that began Feb.

9. The Society of Professional En Can be Re-covered Re finished An Affordable Office Solution Custom Assembled To Fit Your Space 2nd Hand Furnishings Also! ROBERTS OFFICE FURNITURE (3) 1 H-J-ll- JI1H Ill .1.1... I ,11 KliLO gineering Employees in Aerospace represents 22,352 Boeing workers. Units in the Puget Sound bargaining unit, which represent 20,224 workers, voted Sunday to end the strike and return to Boeing commercial jet plants in the Seattle-and Portland, Ore. -areas.

Units representing 1,300 Boeing engineers in Wichita, negotiate separately. Those talks are to resume this week. Wichita negotiators reached a "me-too" agreement this month that essentially guaranteed them at least the same wages and benefits as their Seattle counterparts. "We're walking back in a changed people. We're walking back to a changed company," Charles Bofferding, the union's executive director, told the rally yesterday.

This has been an emotional time for all involved." We are confident that, with time, we will he able to heal from this unfortunate situation as we strive to continue listening to each other and understanding our mutual interests," Phil Condit, Boeing's chairman and chief executive said in a statement Sunday. The contract guarantees wage increases of at least 3 percent each year, in addition to production-linked bonuses of up to $2,500. MBHK Now, as second to none. OfgM Wirto Sown MmdM-Benz Wrto Ibmy Carousel Hotel, purchased by Washington group The Carousel Hotel Resort in Ocean City has been sold to a Washington-based investment group, the hotel's new manager said yesterday. Details on the new owners and purchase price were unavailable.

Hospitality Partners, which has been hired to manage the famed hotel, said the new owners plan a multimillion-dollar renovation. The Carousel Condominium Association, made up of the hotel's 190 condominium owners, bought the high rise on Coastal Highway and 118th St. in a foreclosure auction in May for $7.75 million, with plans to sell the building after making repairs. in breast cancer study PE Genomics Group of Rockville said yesterday that it has entered into a research collaboration to look for genetic variations associated with breast cancer. Terms were not disclosed.

The publicly-held company said it retained rights to sell information gleaned from the alliance with City of Hope Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif. Celera said it will include information about gene variations, known as polymorphisms, in databases it is developing for drug developers and other customers. US Airways warns of strike Saturday US Airways is warning its customers to prepare for a possible strike by its flight attendants Saturday and urging them to prepare alternative arrangements. The flight attendants' union has said it would target random routes with impromptu walkouts to cause maximum chaos. In response, the airline has said it would shut down rather than subject passengers to unpredictable travel.

With a strike deadline of 12:01 a.m. EST Saturday, US Airways flight attendants are back at the bargaining table in an attempt to resolve a three-year contract dispute with the nation's sixth-largest airline. Negotiations aimed at preventing a walkout began Friday. Medical Advisory Systems loss and revenue grow Medical Advisory Systems Inc. said yesterday that its net loss increased in its fiscal first quarter, but revenue more than doubled from the same period last year.

The Southern Maryland company, which provides health information from doctors by phone and Internet, had revenue of $2.7 million for the quarter that ended Jan. 31, up 113 percent from $1.3 million in the first quarter of 1999. The company posted a net loss of $432,150, or 10 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $78,597, or 2 cents a share, last year. The loss included a one-time charge of $609,076 while the 1999 loss reflected an extraordinary gain of $66,149. National Commerce to buy CCB Financial National Commerce Bancorpo-ration said yesterday that it will buy Durham, N.C.-based CCB Financial Corp.

for about $1.95 billion in stock, solidifying its presence in the southeastern United States. The deal would form a bank with $15 billion in assets, more than 300 branches, the biggest share of deposits In North Carolina's fast-growing Research Triangle area, and leading positions in other southeastern cities, Memphis, National Commerce said. CCB shareholders would get 2.45 shares of National Commerce common stock for each CCB share, valuing CCB shares at $48.23 each, a 25 percent premium based on Friday's closing price of $38.5625. 21 bank branches renamed Twenty-one bank branches operated by Mason-Dixon Banc-shares of Westminster opened yesterday under the Corp. name.

which is the nation's 19th-largest banking company with $45.5 billion in assets and 688 branches, is based in Winston-Salem, N.C. It completed its acquisition of Mason-Dixon in July. Mason-Dixon was the parent company of Carroll County Bank and Trust Bank of Maryland High Yield CD Money Market Accounts from MBNA www.peremel.com PEREMEL COM PANY INC 1-800-621-4235, ext. 2035 Wesley Jessen VisionCare Inc. agreed yesterday to buy Ocular Sciences Inc.

for about $386.2 million in stock to become the world's second-largest maker of soft contact lenses. Wesley Jessen will swap 0.721 shares for each share of Ocular, the No. 2 maker of clear disposable lenses. That values Ocular at $16.53 a share, or 2 percent less than Friday's closing price. Wesley Jessen sells lenses that change eye colors or treat astigmatism under brands such as Dura-Soft and FreshLook.

It will get access to Ocular's telemarketing sales force and be able to sell Ocular's clear lenses in the United States and overseas. Price of unleaded gas averages $1,529 a gallon The pump price for unleaded gasoline reached a record $1,529 a gallon, increasing for the tenth consecutive week, the U.S. Energy Department said yesterday. The average national gasoline price was up just two tenths of a cent from last week, but is 52 cents a gallon higher than the previous week, based on the department's weekly survey of 800 service stations. 2 hedge fund managers recruited by Buffett Billionaire Warren Buffett hired two hedge fund managers from EuroPlus Alternative Investments of Dublin, Ireland, to manage $700 million in fixed-income investments.

Daniel Donovan and Richard Grindon left EuroPlus last week to manage money for Buffett, confirmed Alberto La Rocca, who heads the EuroPlus business. Officials at Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. would not comment. Buffett, best known for investing in undervalued companies, has previously put money into bond-arbitrage an effort to make money on the price difference of related fixed-income securities. Berkshire Hathaway invested $270 million in Bermuda-based hedge fund West End Capital, run by Mark Byrne.

Hewlett-Packard, Xerox settle patent lawsuits Hewlett-Packard Co. and Xerox Corp. have settled pending patent-infringement suits with each other, the companies said yesterday, but did not release any details. Both companies said they settled their differences to avoid the costs, time and distractions of lengthy legal battles. The agreement means all outstanding litigation, including six patent suits filed between May 1998 and June 1999, have been dismissed.

Xerox filed complaints involving Hewlett-Packard's products using inkjet, color balancing and resolution enhancement technologies. Hewlett-Packard's suits involved Xerox products using touch screen controls, inkjet and image enhancement technologies. 3Com drops some lines, will reduce work force 3Com Corp. plans to sell its dial-up modem business and stop making networking equipment for big organizations, changes that will reduce its work force of 11,800 by as much as a 25 percent. 3Com is bowing out of slower-growing businesses after failing to make headway against Cisco Systems the largest maker of computer networking equipment.

The No. 2 maker of networking gear will be left with computer-connection cards for homes and offices, networking equipmenffor small and midsize businesses and gear used by Internet service providers to answer incoming calls." Alcoa, Reynolds Metals delay merger for review; Alcoa Inc. will delay for a month proceeding with its $6.34 billion purchase of Reynolds Metals to give the U.S. Justice Department more time to complete its antitrust review of the transaction. The companies said they will extend the deadline for completion of the Justice Department review to May 1 from March 31.

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