Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 84

TO CONTACT US ABOUT BUSINESS NEWS: By phone: (813)893-8160 or (800) 333-7505, ext. 8160 By fax: (813)892-2327 By e-mail: biznewssptimes.com SECTION THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, I997 THE TIMES rx- JU Puirlk cudds Union to prices, offerings Busch Gardens has raised ticket prices and plans to add a simulator ride and an aviary. A deal is not final for a hotel like this fronting the park's African Veldt, but officials hope to break ground this winter and open it in 1 999. I met a By MARK ALBRIGHT Times Staff Writer TAMPA Busch Gardens has quietly raised its admission prices by $2, pushing ticket prices to a new high of more than $40 a day. Adult admission, as of Nov.

24, climbed to $40.50 including tax, a child's ticket went up $1 to $36.45. The price increase comes as Busch Gardens is competing with more theme parks and attractions, such as the growing Walt Disney World empire in Orlando. Disney broke the $40 ticket price point several years ago and was followed by Sea World and Universal Studios Florida. Only one in seven visitors pays full admission price at Busch Gardens because of rampant use of discount coupons. But visitors will see a lot more at the park starting next Akbar's Adventure Tour, which will replace the Questor, will feature Martin Short, above, and Eugene Levy.

year. Busch officials unveiled plans for $10-million in new and updated attractions for 1998. They include a replacement for the Questor that's less likely to cause motion sickness and pool heaters that will extend the season at Busch's Adventure Island water park from six to eight months. The announcements, however, did not come off without a few glitches. A smoke machine used to create a theatrical start to the news conference set off the fire alarms in the Crown Colony Restaurant.

As she described a new aviary, a colorful pair of lorikeets tried to make a nest in conservation specialist Margo McKnight's shoulder-length hair. And Busch, which hoped to announce a deal Please see BUSCH 2E Dollar VS.JARWSYEN Yield 30-YRUS BOND 8032.01 13.18 128.78 0.14 Nation Stock sale nets Eisner In the single biggest payday for an executive in history, Walt Disney chairman Michael Eisner on Wednesday exercised stock options at a profit of about $565-mil-lion that he had accumulated as head of the entertainment giant. Eisner exercised options for 7.3-million shares of stock that he has been accumulating since they were awarded him in contract negotiations in January 1989. The huge value reflects in part a Disney stock that has soared lately. Eisner's pretax payout is his second gigantic one within five years.

In 1992, he reaped $202-million, nearly all from options he exercised. That triggered debate over lucrative stock option packages for executives. ASIAN JITTERS CUT SALES: Asia's currency devaluations are hurting sales of American factory and farm products, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday in a "beige book" survey showing the first economic fallout in the United States from problems overseas. The regional bank in Atlanta said manufacturers in the Southeast are scaling back production in anticipation of weaker export demand, but the economy continues to expand moderately and retail sales exceed last year's. The Fed reported that growth continues to be moderate to strong nationwide, with tight labor markets.

C0LUMBIVHCA SETTLES IRS CASE: ColumbiaHCA Healthcare Corp. has agreed to pay $71-million to settle a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service over stock options for executives. The IRS had sought $276-million in taxes and interest. In return, the IRS dropped its claim that the $525-million in corporate deductions claimed in 1992 was excessive. The money was given to more than 100 executives with Hospital Corporation of America, which became part of Columbia in 1995.

The Commerce Department said Wednesday that new home sales slipxd in October for the second time in three months, falling 1.7 percent from September. The 1 10-story Sears Tower in Chicago, one of the world's tallest buildings, has been sold by AEW Capital Management, a Boston investment partnership, to TrizecIIahn Corp. of Toronto for $70-mil-lion and assumed debt Depot Inc. plans within two years to nearly double the number of its stores, from 590 to 32 of them will be built in Florida Bill Compton, a former pilot union leader at Trans World Airlines and now vice president of operations, was named president and chief operating officer Wednesday. Tampa BayState LAZARD FRERES TO PAY FINE: Lazard Freres Co.

agreed Wednesday to pay $12-mil-lion in fines and restitution to settle federal charges that the brokerage defrauded investors on the sale of municipal bonds in Florida and Georgia. The payment is the largest ever by a brokerage for federal municipal-bond violations, said William Baker, a Securities and Exchange Commission associate enforcement director. The SEC and Justice Department sued Lazard of New York, accusing it of defrauding investors and the agencies that issued the bonds. Lazard underwrote bonds issued by the Duval County School Board in Florida, and Fulton County and the Fulton-DeKalb Hos-' pital Authority in Georgia, the SEC said. Best mortgage rates The best 30-year fixed rate in the Tampa Bay area today, based on a $100,000 loan with a 5 to 10 percent down payment, is 7.125 percent with no points.

It is offered by, among others: Equistar Mortgage (813)712-9590 Aapex Mortgage Corp. (800)344-2739 First Financial Mortgage (813)532-4343 Source: National Financial News Service I For more rates, see Saturday's Home Garden. Dow 30 INDUSTRIALS wmmmmmmmmma tn'-i in'iayfi nnr.ni 6.01 V-', I I (I' il 'Si 1 -w. p. -t r- i ') 4 i 1 from Aetna this contract was the worst thing they'd ever seen," Conaway said.

"But Aetna said it couldn't talk about the contract with us because of antitrust restrictions. So we took our concerns to the AMA." Aetna has not yet responded to the AMA's letter, which was sent Oct. 31. On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the insurer said it was reviewing the issues raised by the doctors' group. "I think there is an opportunity for us to go through and look at what we have in our contract and listen to what they said and make appropriate changes and modifications," spokeswoman Jill Griffiths said.

"We don't necessarily agree that all of the points are accurate, but we still agree that Please see AETNA 6E I agree The $300,000 settlement stems from a state investigation of the bank's failure to license branches to sell investments. By ERIC TORBENSON Times Staff Writer First Union Corp. will pay to settle an investigation by Florida securities regulators into how the bank sold investments to consumers. The Florida Comptroller's Office said in a statement late Wednesday that it had reached an agreement with First Union of Charlotte, N.C., after investigating the bank's brokerage arm, First Union Brokerage Service Inc. Complaints from two local First Union securities brokers helped lead regulators to scrutinize the bank in late 1995.

The $300,000 penalty results from the bank's failure to license its branches to sell investments. Under the agreement, First Union will limit its branch expansion for six months, and rescind any investment transaction that occurred at an unlicensed First Union branch. Under the order, customers who meet the settlement's requirements will have their complaints against First Union arbitrated. Those investors suing the bank separately may use the arbitration process established by Wednes- Please see FINE 2E Soros-tied company will seek protection ASL Petersburg developer of PC-based reservations systems is out of money. By MARK ALBRIGHT Times Staff Writer Phoenix Information Systems out of cash after pouring more than $22-milIion of investors' money into research and development over the past decade, said it will seek Chapter 11 protection from creditors in U.S.

Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. The St. Petersburg-based company, which has been developing airline and hotel reservation systems that work off personal computers, has agreed to seek debtor-in-possession financing allowing a group headed by billionaire financier (ieorge Soros and Puniendu Chatterjee to take control of the company's assets for $20-million in cash. Soros, who has been Phoenix's largest shareholder, had been fronting the company money for more than three years. "We ran out of cash," said Del Bloss, Phoenix's president and CEO for the past nine months.

"And we were unable to raise more money." Among the company's assets is a Please see PHOENIX 2E This is a view of a Tomorrow Never Ores Web site. MGM has collected $100-million from agreements with eight "promotional partners." AP to one At i 1 Busch Entertainment Corp photo David Densmore, 10, of Shalimar feeds nectar to lorikeets at Busch Gardens. The parrots live on a liquid diet; for $1 park visitors will be able to feed them, too. Doctors demand changes the ongoing battle between doctors and managed care companies. The AMA's attack on Aetna's contracts comes after the insurer refused to discuss concerns raised last spring by Florida physicians with the Florida Medical Association.

According to Fran Conaway, FMA spokeswoman, the group fielded calls from dozens of angry physicians when Aetna issued its revised managed care contract in March. Particularly irritating to physicians were clauses allowing Aetna to override a doctor's decisions about what care is medically necessary without providing any avenue of appeal. Physicians were also concerned that the contract contained illegal gag clauses, restricting patient-doctor communication. "Our members were calling, saying making it hard to tell where the advertising ends and the movie hype begins. MGM executive vice president Karen Sortito bristled at the suggestion that the deal is somehow unusual.

"You need to put products in movies to make them realistic. Why shouldn't we get something out of it?" she said. "This is a guy who's been picking up gadgets and getting in cool cars for decades. Do they really want us to scratch out the logos'" Indeed, placing products in movies Please see 007 2E The AMA says it will sue unless the insurer changes its contracts with physicians. Compiled from staff wira report AetnaU.S.

Healthcare is coming under fire from the American Medical Association after doctors in Florida and five other states alleged that the health insurer's contracts are illegal and compromise patient care. If the contracts are not changed, the AMA may sue Aetna, officials said. The AMA's strongly worded letter to Aetna, made public Tuesday, is the group's most aggressive move so far in What about his new movie? It won't be out for two weeks. But products that have cameo roles in Tomorrow Never Dies are already being heavily advertised in an all-out license to sell. The strategy, while not new, seems to reach new extremes with the Bond movie.

Agreements with eight "promotional partners" got the film $100-million worth of publicity before MGM had spent a dime on marketing. And the manufacturers are happy because they get to turn the suave, debonair man of mystery into a human billboard, Advertisers spy a good thing in 007 The new James Bond movie doesn't open for two weeks, but products with tie-ins already are being widely promoted. Associated Press BOSTON James Bond is everywhere. There's 007 outrunning bad guys on his PAIW motorcycle, sipping a Smirnoff vodka martini (shaken, not stirred), making a call on his Fricsson cell phone. 1.