The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 25

YOUR MONEY, C6-9 SECTION TUESDAY FEBRUARY 13, 2001 NA WW.IATIMES.COMBUSINESS SI JESS HIGHLIGHTS Storage Networking Stocks Drop After Emulex Warning Railroad Ends Genetic Testing of Its Workers Price Plunge Data storage networking firm Emulex Corp. saw its shares collapse Monday after the company warned that sales will be flat this quarter a bitter disappointment to investors betting on continued high growth. By KAREN ALEXANDER TIMES STAFF WRITER Leaving no corner of the technology sector immune from investor wrath, Wall Street pummeled storage networking companies Monday after Emulex Corp. warned that orders being deferred could lead to flat sales growth for the first three months. Shares of Emulex, the market leader in fiber channel storage networking products, hemorrhaged nearly half their value, falling $37.13 to close at $40.38 in Nasdaq trading Monday.

The Costa Mesa company's warning pulled down others in the storage market as well, marking a sudden reversal in a sector that had remained vigorous on Wall Street despite overall technology declines. The demand for high-speed storage products, in fact, was believed to be so strong that some had predicted the sector would remain immune from the Please see EMULEX, C5 a 60-day court order suspending the testing and binding the company to discuss a resolution with the EEOC. "Even though the order says we don't intend to reinstitute this," said Richard Russack, a spokesman for the Fort Worth-based railroad, which employs 40,000 people and operates a rail network in 28 states and Canada. The railroad had faced a hearing Wednesday on the agency's request for an immediate halt to the tests, which it says violate the federal Americans With Disabilities Act. "The testing was being performed without the knowledge of the employees, without their consent," said Ida L.

Castro, EEOC chairwoman. "It's a test that's really irrelevant to the job. There was no business necessity. There are other kinds of tests that could determine whether or not a person had carpal tunnel." Railroad officials initiated the genetic testing program in March based upon the Please see DNA, C10 Workplace: After EEOC steps in, Burlington Northern Santa Fe stops looking for predisposition to carpal tunnel syndrome. By LISAGIRION TIMES STAFF WRITER In the face of an unprecedented government challenge, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp.

announced Monday that it has stopped a year-old program of genetic testing on workers who claim they developed carpal tunnel syndrome on the job. Officials with the nation's second-largest railroad made the decision to stop the company's foray into genetic testing in the wake of a lawsuit filed Friday by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of six workers. Over the weekend, company officials decided to halt the tests. They underscored their about-face on Monday by agreeing to Industry Standard Fortune Forbes BusinessWeek Bride's 7,440 6,259 6,083 5,993 4,245 People Business 2.0 Red Herring Modem Bride 4,227 3,749 3,358 3,334 3,315 PC agazine agazine Slowdown 'fF vW Last year was a record-setting one magazine industry, when revenue rose by 14 to $17.7 billion and the number of ad pages jumped more than 10.

For 2001, however, the outlook is decidedly mixed. While some large advertisers are cutting spending, some publishers are launching magazines and Bride's set a world record with its 4.9-pound FebruaryMarch issue. Source: Publishers Information Bureau Magazines' for i Tim Monday: $40.38,1 down $37.13 40 LL Emulex, weekly close and latest, on Nasdaq 20 i 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 i 2000 '01 Source: Bloomberg News Los Angeles Times the Outlook Not gling DaimlerChrysler, are cutting back on ad spending. Philip Morris USA has stopped advertising in magazines that target younger consumers. On top of that, bullish dot-com advertisers have largely turned into bears.

But publishers say now is the perfect time to go after new advertising from companies that purvey upscale goods and apparel. The AARP is targeting baby boomers with a new magazine. And Bride's magazine broke its own Guinness world record with its 4.9-pound February March issue. "Last year everyone looked like a hero," said Michael Friedenberg, publisher of Information Week magazine. "It $120 I 4 feteft iQ.lry I AIB aav.vp." STOCKS DOW INDUSTRIALS 165.32 'jf 10,946.77 iJi SOO 15.55 '-Vj "NASDAQ Composite I 18.69 i-- BOND YIELDS l-yr.

U.S. 0.02 ..,4.71 "OIL per barret 1 EURO i in dollars 0.005 $0,931 0.03 GOLD" per ounce 0.80 $260.70 fYEN i per dollar 117.55 4J MARKETSYOUR MONEY STOCKS GAIN: The market rebounded from last week's slump, led by the Dow and the Standard Poor's small-stock index. C6 JUMPING GENOMICS: Shares of Celera Genomics surged after the company unveiled its decoding of the human genome. C6 PLANNING FOCUS: More emphasis should be placed on "life planning" rather than on beating investment performance benchmarks, financial planners were told. C7 STOCK EXCHANGE: Michael Hiltzik and James Peltz debate the merits of investing in Guitar Center and Neuberger Berman.

C8 TODAY'S NEWS NAPSTER RULING: Internet song-swapping service Napster was dealt a potentially crippling blow when a federal appeals court ruled that it must stop helping users violate music copyrights. Al Music fans vowed to continue trading copyrighted works online for free using other file-swapping tools. C4 TURBULENT SKIES: A government report validating the wave of airline delays and other, service woes heightens the tumult now surrounding the carriers. Al POWER EXPERIMENT: A group of Northern California college students are part of a 20-year-old experiment on energy conservation. A3 HIGH-TECH RENEWAL: The relocation of high-tech businesses to the downtowns of Los Angeles and other U.S.

cities is likely to spur urban revival, a study suggests. C2 FACTORY IN MEXICO: Ford Motor and Navistar International have formed a joint venture to manufacture commercial trucks in northern Mexico. C3 NEW VIRUS: A computer virus pretending to be a photo of a female tennis star overwhelmed e-mail servers in Europe and North America. C3 Times Services On the Web For business news, point your browser to http: iwww.latimes. com and click on Business.

To go directly to free stock and mutual fund quotes and foreign exchange rates, go to http: iwww.latimes Reprints, Research. Research and copies of Times stories are available from Times on Demand by mail or fax. Call (800) 788-8804. From $8. Or sign on to The Times Archives at http: I www.latimes.com HOME ARCHIVES; $1.50 per article or $4.95 for 10.

COMPANY TOWN PAYOLA-RELATED CASE: The biggest radio program director in the Spanish music business is expected to plead guilty to a payola-tinged tax offense. Al STATION SOLD: Spanish-language station KWHY-TV will be purchased by Telemun-do Communications Group. CI WE 1: jf Photos KEN HIVELY Los Angeles Times jr Photo illustration by MARK HAFERLos Angeles Times Publishing: After a record year, the industry is facing the slowdown that's pushing other ad-dependent media to cut costs. Telemundo to Buy LA's KWHY-TV for $239 Million Television: Deal positions the No. 2 Spanish-language network to better compete with top-ranked Univision.

ByLEEROMNEY TIMES STAFF WRITER Telemundo Communications Group the nation's No. 2 Spanish-language television network, has finalized an agreement to purchase independent Spanish-language station KWHY-TV Channel 22 in Los Angeles for about $239 million, the companies said Monday. The deal gives Sony-owned Telemundo a second Los Angeles station with a loyal following and advertiser base. It already owns KVEA-TV Channel 52. When talks began last fall with KWHY owned by Harriscope of Los Angeles Inc.

the deal would have made Telemundo the first Spanish-language network to own two stations in one market. Federal regulators only recently began allowing such so-called duopolies. But news of that pending deal was dwarfed in December when leading network Univision announced it had acquired USA Networks group of more than a dozen stations across the country. If approved by regulators, that deal would give Univision duopolies in multiple markets. Univision's parent company, Univision Communications is headquartered in Los Angeles.

The acquisition of KWHY positions Miami-based Telemundo to better compete against Univision in the larger network's corporate backyard. Telemundo is second in the ratings after Univision but has pulled out of a ratings slump in the last 18 months Please see TELEMUNDO, C4 Santa Monica Eyes Corporate Housing Permit Compliance Properties: Citrus Suites are in areas designated for multifamily rentals, but the firm compares itself to a luxury hotel. By STEPHEN GREGORY SPECIAL TO THE TIMES The question of whether plush corporate housing is an apartment complex or a hotel in disguise will be decided in Santa Monica as the developer readies another property he calls "a Ritz-Carlton you live in." The 101-unit Cirrus Suites at 425 Broadway will debut Wednesday as city officialsconcerned about the fate of affordable housing after the demise of strict rent control are considering whether the first Citrus Suites, which opened at the beach in October 1999, is actually a hotel operating on land set aside for multifamily rental housing. With its upscale touches, Citrus Suites operates at a higher level than most facilities set up to woo business travelers. Corporate housing is one of the fastest growing segments in the nation's hospitality sector, with available inventory estimated to have increased by 13 last year and projected to expand an additional 15 this year, according to Atlanta hospitality consulting and research firm the Highland Group.

In Please see CITRUS, C3 Los Angeles Times So Glossy was very easy to mask mistakes because there was so much money from the venture capital world being funneled into marketing and advertising. But this is a year of truth. Not everyone is going to find out they're as good as they thought." Magazines clearly are facing the broad slowdown that is pushing most advertising-dependent media companies to cut costs. The New York-based Publishers Information Bureau reports that the number of advertising pages in January slipped by 0.8 to 15,176. And even the most optimistic forecasts include a strong finish to balance a relatively weak first half.

"That's what I'm promising management," said Michael Rooney, general manager of ESPN magazine. "We have very aggressive goals here, but we do Please see MAGAZINES, C10 Best Bargain in Exercising Control By GREG JOHNSON TIMES STAFF WRITER January revenue for the magazine industry rose by 5.3 to $929.6 million, and just more than half of 13 advertising categoriesincluding automobiles and home furnishings showed increases. So why is everyone saying the magazine industry is in for a tough year? For starters, 2001 follows a record-setting year in which industry revenue rose by 14 to $17.7 billion and the number of advertising pages jumped by 10.1 to 286,932. Now some companies, including strug Shopaholic Finds Southern Calif ornians Learning How to Succeed in Personal Finances' By JEANETTE MARANTOS SPECIAL TO THE TIMES A lot of things are going right for Bran-dan Wilburn. At the age of 23, she's making almost $46,000 a year as a clinical assistant at biotechnology giant Amgen in Thousand Oaks.

She's athletic enough to play on two company soccer teams, and ambitious enough to want to pursue an MBA in her spare time with her employer picking up the tab. She loves to travel Paris last year and dreams of buying a condo and giving more to her church. But Wilburn has a nasty habit that's threatening her dreams and financial well-being: shopping. "I can convince myself to go shopping in Please see MAKE-OVER, C9 -v- SPENCER WEINER Los Angeles Times Curbing her shopaholic habits is key to making Brandan Wilburn's dreams come true..