The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 23

Wedneiday, November 18, 1998 B-l fSan Jrancwco Sxamincr Find complete Markets at a glance Change from previous trading day's close business news plus Examiner archives at www.examiner.com. HH For the latest stock and market 1 jyiLii ill 30 Industrials, Wednesday close information, call CityLine at (415510408660) 808-5000. Enter 9000 for market information, 9525 for stock quotes. This is a free call in the San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose calling areas. A 30-year Treasuries, New York close 5.24 vs.

Japanese yen, New York late A 121.55 0.55 NYSE 4 NASDAQ 6 AM EX 5 MUTUALS 7 9,041.11 54.83 ENTREPRENEUR yglfti SUflDD rallies Java ralmg Bill Graham drops BASS Bill Graham Presents has dropped BASS as its ticket seller. West Hollywood-based Ticketmas-ter will replace Concord-based BASS as the ticket connection for '-T nmn" hi 5" Uf ff ii i all events ana ven Injunction blocks Microsoft from shipping software By Laura Raun BLOOMBERG NEWS EXAMINER PHOTOS BY CHRIS HARDY Irina Tchitakhova, at right, a visiting Russian lawyer, flips through a booklet provided by The City during a meeting Monday oscow on the Bav By Victoria Collhrer OF THE EXAMINER STAFF oissian PALO ALTO Sun Microsystems Inc. shares rose Wednesday after a federal judge ordered rival Microsoft Corp. to stop shipping software that illegally uses Sun's Java programming language. U.S.

District Judge Ronald Whyte in San Jose granted a preliminary injunction sought by Sun late Tuesday after finding that Microsoft violated its licensing agreement with Sun. Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, was given 90 days to rewrite its Windows 98 operating system and Internet Explorer 4.0 browser to make them fully compatible with Java, which lets software developers design programs for many computer operating systems at once. "It's an absolute major victory 8 RUDOLF SOLOMON I RUSSIA, small businesses are taxed so heavily it 6tunts their growth, laws governing business are few and franchising is virtually unheard of. But the lack of rules gives hope to a group of Russian lawyers visiting San Francisco this month to learn about how the United States regulates small businesses. They say they have the opportunity to create a legal in SILL lawmakers learn small business, American style frastructure that will help Russia's pioneering entrepreneurs.

"We have few rules not enough, but your country has much rules," said Elena Zhdanova, a lawyer who specializes in tax law in Moscow. "We have to find the middle. We can do new rules." Organized by the Center for BUSINESS em Citizen Initiatives, a San Francisco-based nongovernmental organization that provides technical aid to Russia, the program began Oct. 28 and i for Sun," said Stephen Dube, an analyst at Wasserstein Perella Securities, who has a "strong buy" rating on the stock. Investors agreed, sending Sun up $2 to $68.69 in active late trad- SeeSUN.B-2 tit ends Tuesday, providing the 10-person delegation with fresh ideas on how to help Russia through the difficult transition from communism to a free market economy.

Substantially funded by the U.S. Information Agency, Citizen Initiatives has brought more than 1,200 Russian business people to the United States for training during the past three years. But this delegation is considered the most likely to effect change in Russia. The group was handpicked by Irina Khakamada, Russia's first deputy minister of the newly created Minister of Anti-monopoly Regulation and Entrepreneurship Support. The delegates were brought to San Francisco because the center has its headquarters here, where it has strong government See RUSSIANS, B-2 Want to buy a liquor store but not sure how to figure out a fair purchase price? Rudolf Solomon tells you how.

B-2 ues controlled by Bill Graham Presents, including the Concord Pavilion and Shoreline Amphitheater. The change, which will end a 25-year relationship between BASS and Bill Graham Presents, will take place Jan. 1, 2000. Bill Graham Presents is joining Ticketmaster because of a broader alliance between their corporate parents, SFX Entertainment and USA Networks. Bill Graham tickets account for about a quarter of BASS's ticket sales, said Doug Levinson, vice president and general manager of BASS.

While the loss is a blow, Levinson said BASS was able to compete nationally since its purchase by Newport Beach-based Advantix Inc. last year. BASS sells about 4 million tickets annually, while Ticketmaster sells about 70 million. Advantix sells 30 to 40 million tickets nationwide. (Associated Press) Troubled SyQuest seeks protection SyQuest Technology a pioneer in removable computer storage devices, said Tuesday it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and had reached a tentative agreement to sell "substantial assets" to an unnamed buyer for an undisclosed amount.

The struggling Fremont company halved its work force in August, but the downsizing did not stop the flow of red ink. Syquest shut its doors Nov. 2. (Reuters) Providian acquires Bravo accounts Providian Financial Corp. said Wednesday it will buy 600,000 Bravo card accounts and their $350 million in balances from Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Co.

Terms of the deal, expected to close by year-end, were't disclosed. Morgan Stanley announced last January that it sought to shed its Bravo card business. San Francisco-based Providian is the largest credit card lender to people with poor credit ratings. (Bloomberg) Vulcan Ventures invests in tech TV Ziff-Davis Inc. says billionaire Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures Inc.

will invest $54 million in its ZDTV, a 24-hour cable channel devoted to the Internet and related technologies. Vulcan Ventures' investment gives it a 33 percent stake in ZDTV. Ziff-Davis, which is the publisher of No. 1 computer magazine PC Week and producer of trade shows such as Comdex, owns the rest About 9 million homes have access to ZDTV, which began airing in May. (Bloomberg) Nonunion FedEx workers vow to move shipments Nonunion employees of Federal Express Corp.

say they'll keep holiday shipments moving whether the company's pilots strike or not More than 3,000 workers hit the streets Tuesday in Memphis to show support for FedEx in its dispute with the Fedex Pilots Association. The company and its pilots have been haggling over a contract since July. Negotiations broke off Oct 30 and last week pilots began refusing to work overtime. Strike authorization ballots, which have S.F. Supervisor Jose Medina discusses municipal small-business policy with the visit ing Russian delegation.

Charting course of the market COMING THURSDAY Technical analysts meeting in S.F. Gleaning Las Vegas Technology writer Matt Beer scours the floor at the Comdex trade show for the latest personal technology gizmos and gadgets. My Tech. If you have any questions or comments about our new features call Business Editor Pia Hirwkle at (4 15) 777-7991 or e-mail hinckleexaminer.com Monday: Read about up-to-date business technology. Tools of the Trade.

Tuesday: The new home of our popular personal finance section, which formerly appeared on Saturdays. Your Money. Wednesday: We address the backbone of the local economy: small business. Entrepreneur. Thursday: We explore culture, gadgets and gizmos changing our lives in My Tech.

Friday: We look at business in The City, from tourism to commercial real estate, in CHyscape. jTw" By Rick Ackerman SPECIAL TO TVC EXAMINER Back in April, when most forecasters were calling for continued sunshine over Wall Street, Tom Dorsey saw thunderheads on the horizon and warned clients to go on the defensive. "Noah didn't wait for it to start raining before he built his ark," was OW tODS VM Microsoft defiant at Comdex show i amid air of caution how the Richmond, consultant put it at the time in the advisory that his firm, Dorsey, Wright Associates, sends out each dav to in i volume of 653 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange. The Nasdaq composite index rose 18.92 to 1,897.44. In late afternoon trading, the Standard Poor's 500 index was up 3.95 at 1,143.27.

The NYSE composite index was up 1.47 at 562.49, and the American Stock Exchange composite index was up 0.17 at 667.06. Wednesday's blue-chip recovery lifted most broad-market indexes, but declining issues still outnumbered advances overall. The technology-heavy Nasdaq market posted the sharpest gains as big-name Internet shares sprinted higher yet again. See MARKETS, B-3 Investors ponder whether more rate cuts are ahead EXAMMEA NEWS SERVICES NEW YORK Blue-chip stocks closed higher Wednesday despite caution on Wall Street as investors wondered whether the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates again to insulate the economy from the global contagion. Based on early, unofficial data, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 54.83 points to 9,041.11.

In the broader market, declines led advances by a small margin on active of the Microsoft SQL Server 7 launch, a massive initiative by the Redmond, behemoth to dominate the corporate database market The most curious part of the launch party, held at the Floren-tine-themed Bellagio Hotel: watching journalists battle over plush SQL 7-embroidered backpacks and a limited number of free tickets to the Cirque du Soleil show The SQL launch did not go unnoticed by the dark prince of Oracle, Larry Ellison, who stalked the Las Vegas Hilton stage during his Monday night keynote, spending See COMDEX, B-3 High-tech firms play for high stakes amid the glitter of Las Vegas By Matt Beer EXAMINER TECHNOLOGY WRITER LAS VEGAS Microsoft President Steve Ballmer declared this week that the software giant was "spot on" in its business practices and would not back down from the government's antitrust lawyers. His declaration came at the end stitutional in- Dwsy vestors, brokerage houses and traders. The alert proved prescient, since stocks in July began their steepest decline since the 1987 crash. Then, in late September, with a bullish advisory that bucked the tide of opinion, Dorsey gave another timely heads up to his clients just two weeks before the start of See ANALYSTS, B-3 been mailed to union members, will be counted the first week in December. (Associated Press).