The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 42

8-Business Finance The Tampa Tribune, Thursday, March 31, 1994 Business Digest Silver King Communications Inc. 1991 1992 1993 $26.6 $46.8 $46.2 Revenue (millions) traducing new products resulted in a $517,753 annual loss for Paradise Inc. The Plant City-based maker of candied fruit and molded plastics said it lost $1 a share in the year ended Dec. 31, compared with net income of $408,295, or 94 cents, 1n 1992. Sales fell 8 percent to $1 7.6 percent The company said the new products, a new line of edible nuts and processed strawberry products, have gained substantial distribution I IIIIIImMCJ i I Net income (millions) Earnings per share Stock symbol: SKTV Market value: $1 05.2 million Chairman: Jeffrey McGrath James Lawless 52-week highlow: $21.25 $2,625 Close: $11,875 Employees: 205 Headquarters: St.

Petersburg Turner Hogan Properties: Owns 12 broadcasting stations and 14 low-power stations. Pepsi products to add fizz's expiration date For decades, marketers have managed to convince American consumers that they had problems they never knew were problems halitosis, body odor, dishpan hands, even bad breath in dogs and then peddle (hem solutions. Now, Pepsi-Cola Co. seeks to add to that list a most unlikely problem, staleness in sodas. Beginning Friday, the nation's No.

2 soft-drink maker will sell Diet Pepsi with freshness dates emblazoned on can bottoms, indicating the contents are best if used in 12 to 14 weeks. Freshness dates will soon follow on all other Pepsi brands, including the flagship Pepsi-Cola. I Industry leader Coca-Cola Dr Pepper-Seven-Up Cos. and Royal Crown Co. say product freshness isn't an issue for most consumers because most soft drinks re consumed long before losing Tribune graphic Source: Bloomberg Business News and their sales should more than double during the year.

Plasma-Therm net rises Plasma-Therm Inc. said higher demand for its plasma process equipment led to higher first-quarter sales and profits. The St. Petersburg company earned $679,091, or 8 cents a share, in the period ended Feb. 28, compared with $5,267, or breakeven, the year before.

Revenues rose 44 percent to $5.4 million. Silver King stations could form 5th network From Page 1 $400,000 award that will enable the agency to expand its operations from Hillsborough and Pinellas counties into Pasco, Polk, Manatee and Sarasota counties. The commitment from the Enterprise Florida Innovation Partnership is for $400,000 a year for 10 years. Enterprise Florida is a statewide public-private partnership that aims to create 200,000 high-skilled, high-wage jobs in Florida by 2005. TEC is a nonprofit Tampa corporation that provides management assistance to emerging and existing technology-oriented and manufacturing companies.

Sprint plants to close Sprint Corp. said it plans to close its Sprint Publishing Advertising Inc. and Berry-Sprint Publishing production facilities in Tampa. The number of employees was not detailed. Those operations are being consolidated in Bristol, starting later this year and into 1995.

The move follows a streamlining and automation of the company's production processes. Berry-Sprint is a sales agent for Sprint Publishing, the nation's 10th-largest Yellow Pages publisher. Sunstate Courier bought Courier Dispatch Group Inc. said it has purchased all the stock in Sunstate Courier of Tampa. Terms were not disclosed.

Sunstate's annual sales of $7 million will greatly expand the market share of Atlanta-based Courier, the company said. Courier had annual revenues of more than $87 million. It is the fourth transaction in 15 months for Courier. Noblit Insurance sold AAA Auto Club South, based in Tampa, has purchased Noblit Insurance Agency, a Tampa Bay area agency with $4.5 million in premiums. The acquisition brings Auto Club South's total premiums to more than $40 million.

mem ence of Home Shopping, was spun off as a publicly traded company in late 1992. Home Shopping reaches about 60 million American households primarily through cable affiliations. Silver King is controlled by Roy M. Speer, cofound-er and former chairman of Home Shopping. However, Speer sold an option to buy his controlling interest in Silver King to Liberty Media Corp.

at the same time he sold his controlling interest in Home Shopping to the cable programmer. Liberty Media has until February to exercise the option for $2 million. The motives behind why Ted Turner would be interested in Home Shopping remain unclear. "Silver King makes a lot more sense than Home Shopping," said Chuck Kersch, an analyst with Hanifen, Imhoff in Denver. However, John C.

Malone, CEO of cable giant Tele-Communications Inc. and chairman of Liberty Media, is reportedly pulling the strings, analysts say. Liberty Media, because of regulatory constraints, cannot exercise its option to buy Silver King. Turner Broadcasting would be a friendly ally. And executives at the two home shopping companies don't like one of their largest shareholders Malone having an interest in the other, said Craig Bibb, an analyst with PaineWebber Inc.

in New York. By blending Home Shopping into Turner Broadcasting's holdings, it would be "one of multiple owners and a package of programming," he said. "Or he could be trying to entice Diller to get off his rear end and buy HSN," Bibb said. Diller's QVC has failed in two attempts to unite with Home Shopping. Bayside directors banned Federal banking regulators said they've barred two directors of Port Charlotte-based Bayside Federal Savings and Loan from working in the banking industry.

The Office of Thrift Supervision has also barred a former director of the The action against James R. Fisher, John H. Carney and former director Jeff Noble came after the three were indicted in a Dallas federal court on criminal fraud charges, the thrift office said. The indictment charges that the trio schemed to defraud Bayside and lied to regulators. to form a fifth national broadcast network.

Analysts believe Turner Broadcasting would like to acquire Silver King's stations to give it the opportunity to put its own broadcasting on those stations. Silver King stations have an agreement to broadcast Home Shopping Club, but that deal could be eliminated by paying off more than $100 million in debt that Silver King owes Home Shopping. Home Shopping, Silver King and Turner Broadcasting representatives wouldn't comment. Creating a fifth network alongside ABC, NBC, CBS and Rupert Murdoch's Fox TV is a goal of several media executives including Turner, Barry Diller, chairman of Home Shopping's rival QVC Network and others. "It's a way to create another network relatively cheaply," Motavalli said.

In fact Silver King's stations could be an avenue with which Home Shopping President Gerald Hogan could launch his brainchild Best TV, which would broadcast the most popular movies and television shows from cable channels so that television viewers without cable could see them. Hogan and Turner go way back. Hogan worked at Turner Broadcasting for 19 years, helping create much of the company's programming, including TNT, which shows classic movies and sitcom reruns. Silver King, created in 1986 to broaden the audi Charter buys hospitals Charter Medical Corp. said It agreed to buy 46 psychiatric hospitals and an outpatient clinic from National Medical Enterprises Inc.

for $200 million. i The sale includes three in the Tampa Bay area: Medfield Hospital and the Bay Harbor Residential Treatment Center, both in Largo, and the Manatee Palms Residential Treatment Center in Bradenton. Charter's purchase would expand its chain of 75 psychiatric hospitals by 60 percent The hospitals included in the purchase generated revenue of $174 million in the six months ended November. Charter recorded revenue of $897.9 million in fiscal 1993. National Medical, which has been plagued by a federal investigation and lawsuits by former patients charging fraud and conspiracy, said earlier this month it was negotiating to sell 51 of its 61 psychiatric hospitals to Charter.

Panicking investors could accelerate slump From Page 1 Northrop Corp. proposed sweetening its offer for Grumman Corp. to $2.11 billion, or $62 per share, and gave the company 24 hours to accept putting more pressure on Martin Marietta Corp. to make a higher bid. Wool-worth Corp.

will restate its fiscal 1994 results and may do the same for the prior year, and is investigating possible accounting irregularities. USAir Group Inc. promoted former TWA executive Frank L. Salizzoni to president and chief operating officer. Prodigy Services Co.

and ESPN Enterprise will launch a service dedicated to sports on Prodigy's online database service. A week after being appointed, Edward Maskaly said he'd resign as CEO of Spectrum Information Technologies Inc. A Tribune Staff, Wire Report ruary, and that the total value of mutual funds dropped slightly from the high in January. Pinson advised investors to be "a buyer of mutual funds, when the selling wave stops." Bloch advised investors to stay away from interest-rate sensitive stocks, especially utilities. The Dow Jones utilities average is already down 22 percent.

Bloch recommended investors watch for opportunities to buy stocks and sector funds in industries that benefit from a robust economy, including building materials and He said investors should avoid long-term bond funds, which are headed for a greater fall. Stick with short-term funds with an average maturity of three to five years, he said. He said, for example, the Wall Street Money Management Group Growth Fund 1994 sold all of its stocks three weeks ago, and is now 100 percent in cash. Fund managers are waiting for an opportunity to buy, Bloch said. "You're better off not doing this yourself.

Invest in a fund and let the professionals do it," he said. years of stock market profits, those same mutual fund investors will perpetuate the decline, Pinson warned. "The novice investor, regardless of what the professionals say, will begin to panic," Pinson said. "This wave of selling is coming from the mutual fund side, where funds are being forced to sell by investors redeeming shares." Mutual fund companies reported Wednesday that cash inflows into mutual funds slowed sharply in Feb Factory orders decline A sharp drop in military and commercial aircraft sales in February caused the first decline in orders to U.S. factories since last summer.

Orders fell 1 percent in February, breaking a six-month string of advances, the Commerce Department said. i wouid urge people to focus on details of this report," said Marilyn Schaja, an economist with Donaldson, Lufkin Jenrette Securities Corp. in New York City. Excluding the highly volatile defense and aircraft orders, she said, "It was the eighth increase over the last nine months." Anchor Glass shows loss Anchor Glass Container Corp. said it lost $34.2 million for the year, partly because of a charge for refinancing its debt.

That compares with a profit of $12.3 million in 1992 for the Tampa-based company, the nation's second-largest maker of glass containers. Sales fell 3 percent to $1.16 billion. "These results are in line with expectations, but less than satisfactory by a long way," said James R. Malone, president and CEO. An improved product mix and cost reductions should result in better results beginning in the second quarter, he said.

The company took an $18.1 million charge in the fourth quarter to refinance its high-interest debt. It also bought some manufacturing facilities it had been leasing, reducing its annual interest expense. Paradise reports loss The costs of developing and in- 3 TEC grant sets expansion The Enterprise Corporation of Tampa Bay has received a kSlwSM Mr. TLB. lr Om Mk nwici nun 1J JB jzjz un waviiw MmM Oil! BWKium 1.44 a tt toi fa-i 1 iv Msr Ni Xerox ra jib ljp3 SliP III li bo Hi Jl mm i 6 itm Ml It if 1 lis sj 25191 U.S.

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