Daily News from New York, New York • 25

ro cn THE TICKE 33is $78.93 $35.62 -1 $90.81 -131S $67.87 i niiiLitL'iiitiLlJll 1 1 1 Urn MiiI'Ii if I llfci'il-wii Qom tei "i cT3n Trn IF By PETER GRANT v.s-w--' A If if Daily News Business Writer Media giant Time Warner will likely get millions of dollars in tax breaks for becoming the anchor tenant in the New York Coliseum redevelopment, city officials said yesterday. Providing details of the $1.1 billion project, officials said Time Warner would be given incentives comparable to those given Viacom, Reuters, McGraw-Hill and others. Time Warner "is an important corporation in the City of New York," said John Dyson, a senior economic adviser to Mayor Giuliani. "We will treat them equally with their competitors in the communications business." Incentive packages typically depend on new job creation and the number of positions kept in the city. Reuters received up to $26 million and McGraw-Hill will get as much as $34.5 million.

Critics have blasted these deals as examples of corporate welfare, arguing the city should not give tax breaks to profitable companies when schools and other public agencies desperately need money. Giuliani administration of-- ficials emphasized that tax breaks were not part of yester-r day's deal, in which a venture including Time Warner and Ei'ir i MISHA WITT DAILY NEWS ALL SMILES at announcement of Coliseum site developer. In front of model and rendering (I. to Virgil Conway, MTA chairman; Mayor Rudy Giuliani and architect Jacqulin Robertson. Bears rampaging through Wall St.

Stocks tumbled yesterday as the stepped-up pace of events in the White House sex scandal added to investors' bearish mood. The Dow Jones industrial average had another roller-coaster day, losing 93.46 points. It recovered from an earlier 212-point dive. The Nasdaq continued to stumble, falling 36.73 points to 1,896.53, and the 500 was hammered for a 17.03 drop to 1,130.24. Fund flows fall Mutual fund investors, reacting to the stock market slide, redeemed nearly $1.7 billion from U.S.

equity funds last week, according to research firm Trim Tabs Financial Services. The previous week saw a net inflow of $5.6 billion. Tabs estimates about $15.5 billion will be invested in stock funds this month, vs. June's estimated $20.2 billion. Exiting Cendant Walter Forbes resigned as chairman of Cendant along with nine members of the troubled company's board, less than a week after senior execs called for Forbes' resignation because of accounting fraud at businesses he once led.

Forbes maintained he had no knowledge of the accounting Irregularities at discount services provider CUC International, which merged with hospitality company HFS in December to form Cendant. On the offensive Microsoft answered accusations by the Justice Department and a group of states over its landmark antitrust case, countersuing the 20 state attorneys general to pay its own lawyers' fees. Microsoft said it was suing the states because part of the case filed by the attorneys general "would unconstitutionally deny the intellectual property rights it's entitled to under federal law." It contends that under copyright law, it is entitled to sell unaltered versions of its Windows 95 and Windows 98 software. Prison breakdown Shares of two prison companies, which announced in April plans for a $2.88 billion merger, slipped to new lows yesterday after the escape of six inmates from one of the companies' prisons led the governor of Ohio to call for its shutdown. Corrections Corp.

of America, which manages the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center, lost 2V6to $19.37. The company that owns that prison and which is buying Corrections CCA Prison Realty Trust, fell 3V4 to $23. i. State Sen. Franz Leichter, a major foe of corporate incentives, yesterday attacked Giuliani for considering tax breaks for Time Warner, which made $246 million last year on revenue of $13.3 billion.

"It's totally out of control and totally unjustified," he said. cans IP For Price, line righ megadeveloper Related Cos. will pay $345 million for the coveted Columbus Circle site. Giuliani would only say future tax breaks are possible. "I never rule things out," he said.

But aides acknowledged officials told Time Warner they could reasonably expect such MICHAEL PRICE, chairman of Franklin Mutual Advisers. Price sold his Short Hills, N.J. -based firm, Heine Securities to Franklin Resources in November 1996 for more than $600 million. At that time, he said he would remain actively involved in managing funds for at least two years which expires in November. Price has said he would like to get out of the public eye and manage his own fortune.

He's been preparing the market for his exit by talking up his managers on cable TV. "He's talked about all these great people he's put in place. Now it's time to see if his team is as good as the coach," said money manager Michael hi LA benefits when they relocate offices, studios and thousands of employees to the 2.1 million-square-foot complex. "We said we would be willing to have conversations and that they wouldn't be treated unfairly," said Planning Commission chief Joseph Rose. By AMY FELDMAN Daily News Business Writer Del Monte Foods yesterday canned its planned initial public offering as investors balked at swallowing the world's largest marketer of canned fruits and vegetables.

The company's backers, financier David Bonderman and his leveraged-buyout shop Texas Pacific Group, had hoped to begin to cash out today with a $250 million IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. But with the IPO market choppy, the $1.3 billion company pulled its planned deal at the last moment. The last-minute reversal followed earlier efforts by Del Monte to salvage the deal by cutting back the number of shares offered and the proposed price. A company spokeswoman confirmed only that the offering had been "postponed." Part of Del Monte's trouble was that it got squeezed by Tropicana, which like Del Monte is a brand-name food firm that had faced tough going in the IPO market, said David Menlow, an analyst at IPO PS tw1ilt Financial Network. "Del Monte is suffering because of what market participants view as the unresolved issue of Tropicana," Menlow said.

"As a result, it may have caught a bit of food poisoning." Just this month, Tropicana owner Seagram pulled the or-ange juice giant from a planned IPO, selling it to PepsiCo for more than $3 billion. For heavily indebted Del Monte, the IPO's postponement to an undetermined future date is just the latest roadblock in efforts to bounce back from a troubled history. In 1997, Texas Pacific the folks who bailed out Oxford Health earlier this year bought Del Monte for $809 million from a financial group led by Charterhouse International. And Richard Wolford, former president of Dole Packaged Foods, joined as chief executive. Under Wolford, Del Monte has made a number of moves toward a turnaround, including cutting costs and expanding its products with the purchase of Contadina tomato products from Nestle.

2 for change i. By AMY FELDMAN Daily News Business Writer Goodbye, Michael Price. The 47-year-old mutuals guru said yesterday he will step back from day-to-day management of his funds empire on Nov. 1. The well-known, activist fund manager who has built one of the industry's best track records over two decades of stock-picking disclosed the news in a report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Although Price said that he would remain chairman of Franklin Mutual Advisers, the investment manager of all of the Mutual Series funds, he will step down as chief executive. wi "Although I won't be doing everyday stock-picking, I will continue to be part of the organization," Price said. Stepping up to the post of 11 chief executive will be Peter Langerman, who joined Price as an analyst 12 years ago. 5 (A.