The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • Page 40

Business Page 2d Thursday, March 18, 1999 The Sun Internet Business Digest AOL completes $10 billion acquisition of Netscape ware for corporations. AOL in turn agreed to buy about $500 million of Sun's computers over four years. AOL Chairman Steve Case has said he wants to give AOL's 16 million subscribers easy links to Netscape's already popular Netcenter Web site, which is a portal to a range of services and information geared toward businesses. AOL already runs the popular aol.com Internet site, made for consumers, which is ranked the most popular Web destination by Media Metrics Inc. Netcenter is No.

5. AOL also may create versions of Netscape's Internet browser software for a new generation of Internet-navigation devices, such as wireless hand-held computers and smart phones with screens. While AOL plans for now to keep Netscape's stockholders will receive 0.9 share of AOL common stock for each share of Netscape common. Shares of Netscape closed yesterday at $97,625. Shares of AOL gained $4,125 in after-hours trading to close at $109.0625 in trading of 27.1 million shares, making it the most active stock in U.S.

trading. Dulles, Va. -based AOL, the world's largest Internet access and online service provider, plans to use Netscape's assets to gain key advantages in its battle with Microsoft Corp. to dominate the main Web sites where people get information and buy goods and services. The acquisition involves a strategic alliance with Sun Microsystems the top maker of computer workstations and leading software programmer, which will help sell Netscape's Internet soft stock for shopping money All-stock purchase combines tw of the top Web destinations FROM WIRE REPORTS America Online Inc.

completed its nearly $10 billion acquisition of Netscape Communications Corp. yesterday, creating a powerful new Internet force with two of the top Web destinations. AOL completed its all-stock purchase after Netscape shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favor of the deal, removing the last remaining hurdle. The Justice Department said last week that it, wouldn't oppose the takeover. Under the pooling-of-interests transaction, which was announced in November, Netscape Cable television Allen may sell Up to $3 billion IPO would be tops for industry ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen may sell stock In his growing cable TV empire to raise money for more acquisitions.

Allen's Charter Communications Inc. could sell $2 billion to $3 billion worth of stock through an initial public offering in the second half of the year if market conditions remain positive, spokeswoman Anita Lamont said yesterday. The IPO would be the largest ever in the cable television industry and could rank among the richest of any kind. Allen entered the cable busi Ben uk Bryas 'Investment Bankers and Financial KRSHW Manufacturing Company, Inc. Represented Kershaw in the sale of this leading manufacturer and developer of railway equipment to December 1998 ness last year and has been expanding his holdings rapidly, hoping demand will increase for highspeed Internet access and phone services over cable lines, which have much greater capacity than phone lines.

With the stock sale, Charter hopes to cash in on cable's increasing popularity on Wall Street. Investors have been bidding up shares of cable operators in hopes that their lines will one day be widely used for more than just television services. That movement has already started to take shape with recent acquisition of Tele-Communications Inc. and an alliance with Time Warner the two biggest cable companies in the nation. The companies plan to use those cable systems to offer con 'inc.

Advisors To Middle Market Companies global trade agreement. The WTO panel upheld the U.S. contention that Canada's system of providing low-cost milk to processors for export exceeded the subsidy limits the country had accepted in the last round of global trade talks. American dairy farmers had contended that the extra subsidies were allowing Canada to unfairly boost exports of dry milk, cheese and butter on world markets. Kodak selling its copier business Eastman Kodak Co.

says it will get out of the photocopier manufacturing business by selling the unit to Germany's Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, a maker of printing machinery. The transaction will expand the scope of NexPress, Kodak's joint venture with Heidelberger. A Kodak spokesman declined to comment on reports of a $200 million price tag on the deal. More than 1,500 jobs will be transferred from Kodak to Heidelberger and NexPress, but operations will continue in their current locations. Yahoo! brass cash in for $171.5 million Yahoo! top executives, led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Timothy Koogle, sold shares valued at $171.5 million, just after the stock of the No.

1 Internet directory reached an all-time record. Koogle sold 140,000 shares at $170.10 a share, or $23.8 million, on Feb. 4, according to the Washington Service, which tracks insider buying and selling. He now owns 400,234 shares. Yahoo! shares have surged more than eightfold in the past year, closing at a record $207.25 Jan.

1 1 a day before the company reported fourth-quarter earnings that exceeded expectations and unveiled a 2-for-l stock split. DLJ sued by insurer that bought securities Donaldson Lufkin Jenrette Securities Corp. was sued yesterday by Manufacturers Life Insurance Co. for allegedly selling it securities that Manufacturers claims were backed by a fraudulent real estate scheme. Manufacturers says DLJ sold it $8.7 million of mortgage pass-through securities pegged to residential property in the Asbury Park, N.

area. The properties supporting the securities were bought and resold within days for two to eight times the original price, the suit said. Bank merger may sell 270 New England branches The planned $16 billion merger of Fleet Financial Group and BankBoston may lead to the sale of 270 New England branches, in what could be one of the largest bank divestitures ever, the Boston Globe reported yesterday. In addition. Fleet Boston as the combined bank will be called, plans to close about two dozen branches.

Fleet has 1,200 branches, including 412 in New York and 171 in New Jersey. BankBoston has about 425 branches in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Maine. MR projects sickout tab at up to $255 million AMR the parent company of American Airlines, estimated yesterday that its disagreement with pilots over the acquisition of Reno Air cost the company about $200 million to $255 million in pretax earnings in the first quarter. The cancellation of more than 6,600 flights as pilots called In sick in February, and the lost bookings that followed, will cut earnings to about 30 cents to 35 cents a share, AMR said. Producer gets more time to file restructuring plan Livent the troubled theater producer which has raked in 18 Tony awards for its Broadway hits, yesterday won more time to file a restructuring plan with a U.S.

Bankruptcy Court. Sources connected to the company said the New York-based court approved an extension of the deadline for Livent to file a restructuring plan to June 30 from March 18, and extended the company's deadline for approval of a plan from creditors to Aug. 30 from May 18. Livent, whose co-founders, Garth Drabinsky and Myron Gottlieb, are under indictment on charges they tried to losses, dupe investors and extract kickbacks from contractors, filed for bankruptcy protection Nov. 18.

From staff and wire reports In the region MBNA to advertise on Infoscck's Internet network MBNA the world's biggest nonbank credit-card lender, agreed to pay up to $100 million to advertise on Infoseek Go Network of Internet sports, news and entertainment sites. Wilmington, MBNA will get exclusive rights to advertise on the Go Network, a venture between Infoseek and Walt Disney Co. that includes sites such as ESPN.com, ABCNews.com, NFL.com and Infoseek's own search directory site, all accessible from Go.com. Disney owns 43 percent of Infoseek. MBNA will pay Sunnyvale, Calif.

-based Infoseek a guaranteed $85 million over five years for advertisements and up to $100 million, based on how many accounts are opened and how much new customers charge on their cards. MBNA will offer co-branded cards that carry the names of Go Network sites. Radio One plans $100 million IPO Radio One a Lanham broadcasting company that primarily targets black listeners, will seek to raise money through a $100 million initial public offering. Radio One, founded in 1980, specializes in acquiring and fixing up poorly performing radio stations in markets that have a significant minority presence. But the company has borrowed heavily and wants to use the IPO proceeds in part to cut debt, according to its filing with the U.S.

Securities and Exchange Commission. With pending acquisitions, the company would own 26 stations, all but one in top-20 black radio markets, including Baltimore. Another merger of home care operations St. Joseph Medical Center and Upper Chesapeake Health System said yesterday that they have merged their home health care operations. The deal continues a trend of consolidations in home health, as systems seek efficiency in the face of lower federal reimbursements for home care.

Last year, the home health operations of Sinai Hospital and the University of Maryland Medical System merged into the Visiting Nurse Association of Maryland; Mercy Medical Center and North Arundel Health Systems merged their home health units; and the five-hospital Helix Health system completed consolidation of all its home care agencies. Elsewhere 3-for-2 stock split 015 the most widely owned public company in the United States, declared the 3-for-2 stock split yesterday that it had promised two months ago to deliver upon completing its $55 billion purchase of cable television giant Tele-Communications Inc. The No. 1 long-distance phone carrier, which closed the TCI deal last week, will split the stock April 15 for shareholders of record March 31. After the split, will have about 3 billion shares outstanding.

The stock split is its first since 1994. Online trading sputters for Schwab, ETrade clients Online customers of Charles Schwab Corp. and E'Trade Group Inc. had trouble buying and selling stock via their Web sites for a few arduous minutes yesterday, as the Internet brokers suffered more computer glitches. Schwab, the largest U.S.

discount and Internet broker, lost its Web site for about 15 minutes at 10 a.m. EST for the second time in less than a month, spokeswoman Tracey Gordon said. E'Trade, the third-largest site of its kind, appeared to have suffered a less severe outage, with only "some" customers having difficulty placing their orders. WTO finds Canada in dairy violation The World Trade Organization, which referees global trade disputes, ruled yesterday that the subsidies provided by the Canadian government to that country's dairy farmers represented a violation of its obligations under a 1994 work force autonomous, with separate headquarters in Mountain View, its purchase marks the end of independence for a software pioneer. Netscape's founders created the popular Navigator software for finding and retrieving information on the Web, but the company withered in recent years in a punishing counterattack by Microsoft.

Shareholders voting for the deal, in Santa Clara, were optimistic that the AOL marriage would give a needed lift to Netscape's businesses. "I knew immediately AOL was going tobealeaderin encouraging the masses to use the Internet; I'm glad to be a part of it now," said Sarah Green, owner of a computer consulting firm who has quadrupled her investment in Netscape shares bought a few years ago. ASSOCIATED PKKB8 New Job: Joseph P. Clayton, Frontier chief executive, will be a vice chairman of Global Crossing. Telecommunications Bermuda firm absorbing Frontier Corp.

ASSOCIATED PRESS ROCHESTER, N.Y. Frontier a century-old telephone carrier with a nationwide long-distance network, is being snapped up for $11.2 billion in stock by Global Crossing a Bermuda-based upstart in telecommunications. The deal, announced yesterday, provides a U.S. foothold for Global Crossing, a 2-year-old company that's building a worldwide fiber-optic network to carry voice, data, video and Internet traffic. With the addition of Frontier, that network would connect 159 cities in the United States, Japan, Europe and Latin America.

But while Global Crossing has more than twice the fiber reach of Frontier with 51,000 miles of cable, it's the smaller company by far with just 200 employees and sales of $424 million in 1998, although that's expected to reach $1 billion this year. Frontier, founded in 1899 as Rochester Telephone, has more than 8,000 employees and had $2.6 billion in revenue last year. Still, Global Crossing has been raising many industry eyebrows of late, having snatched away a top executive to become its chief executive just weeks ago. That man, Robert Annunziata, was the former head of Teleport Communications Group, a local telephone company he built up and sold to for $12 billion last year. Frontier sprouted beyond its roots as a local phone monopoly in Rochester, N.Y., by buying more than a half-dozen long-distance carriers in the 1990s and becoming one of the nation's top 10 long-distance providers.

Then, in 1996, it paid $500 million for part of a national fiber-optic network being built by Qwest Communications International a pittance by today's values. Frontier competes with longdistance phone service providers such as MCI and Sprint by serving small and medium-size businesses. It also provides local phone service in 32 states and the District of Columbia. Global Crossing, which Is planning undersea networks to link up four continents, has previously operated only as a wholesaler, selling space on its network to long-distance telephone providers. Frontier's chief executive officer, Joseph P.

Clayton, will become a vice chairman of Global Crossing. Global Crossing is offering $62 a share In stock for each Frontier share, a 40 percent premium over Frontier's closing price Tuesday. In yesterday's trading, Frontier surged, $5,875, or 13 percent, to share. Global Crossing fell $4,375, or 8.5 percent, to $47,125. sumers one-stop shopping for phone, Internet and TV services.

St. Louis-based Charter is the nation's seventh-largest cable operator. Five pending acquisitions, expected to close by late summer, would give the company 3.4 million subscribers, mainly in the Northeast, South and West. Allen's first cable purchase was a $2.8 billion takeover last year of Marcus Cable then the nation's largest privately held cable operator. Then he acquired Charter, the lOth-largest cable company, for $4.5 billion and combined it with his other holdings under the Charter name.

Allen, who co-founded Microsoft Corp. with Bill Gates in 1975, also owns stakes in several technology companies, as well as football's Seattle Seahawks and basketball's Portland Trail Blazers. Acted as financial advisor to Yellow (Nasdaq: YhLL) in the nrnuiKitmn tif Hun a regitmul LTL carrier serving the Pacific Northwest December 1998 Phone 410.576.297S Fax 410.752.2978 Of The Year Be a Part of Maryland's Success Story. Blase's Story: Beginning with The Harkins Croup in 1 968 as a labor er, Blase Cooke learned the Represented Talonsoft in the sale of this software developer and publishers of war strategy games to Take Two Interactive (Nasdaq: TTH'O) December 1998 IISrailworks. Represented Railworks (Nasdaq: RH'KS) in the acquisition of Mid West Railroad onstruction Maiiitmnni-f Corp.

a provider of track maintenance and construction services to the mining industry. January 1999 Represented Railworks (Nasdaq: RH'KS) in the acquisition of FCM a provider of stale-oj-the-art track construction and maintenance equipment. January 1999 16 West Madison Street 'Baltimore. Maryland 21201 Ernst Young www. bengurbryan.

com Entrepreneur s1. when "nuts and bolts" of the tion trade from the bottom up. tion services were declining, Blase pursued the niche markets of design-build, state and fed-eral government and Armed Forces contracting. Today, The Harkins Croup is one of the largest design-build contractors in the nation. demand for private sector construc- hear yours.

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