Fort Worth Star-Telegram from Fort Worth, Texas • 27

i i i I T'f i Business Wednesday July 28 1993 SECTION IBM cut hits investors looking for safe haven 1 Big Blue slashes quarterly dividend to 25 cents a share ini Big hits Here are the largest quarterly losses in US corporate history The company name is followed by the amount of the loss and the ouarter in which it occurred $2104 billion 1 st Qtr 1992 1 General Motors C3 L-X -ii i in mi "in JV in nil mil WH 3 ByJimFuquay Fort Worth Star-Telegram When IBM cut its quarterly dividend yesterday for the second time this year it highlighted the quandary that faces investors looking for a secure source of income in this day of low interest rates For decades US blue-chip stocks such as International Business Machines Corp represented a safe investment paying a steady stream of dividends But from IBM to Sears to General Motors the 1990s have turned conventional wisdom on its head "It is another example of what people thought was a reliable stock" that has stumbled badly Amy Arnott an analyst for Mu tual Fund Values said of IBM "It's very difficult to get a good yield in today's market" said Arnott whose publication tracks the performance of thousands of mutual funds IBM reported a record $8 billion quarterly loss yesterday and said that it will slash its dividend by 54 percent to 25 cents each quarter The company first trimmed its quarterly dividend from $121 in the year's first quarter That means that IBM's dividend has been cut from $484 annually to 1 a reduction of nearly 80 percent The company's stock price meanwhile has dipped by more than (More on IBM on Page 10) Qtr 1992 Qtr 1993 Qtr 1992 Qtr 1983 Qtr 1987 Qtr 1992 Qtr 1993 Qtr 1988 $666 billion 1st $564 billion 1st $546 billion 4th $488 billion 4th $476 billion 4th $439 billion 1st $415 billion 1st $334 billion 4th 3 Ford Motor 4 5 IBM 6 7 Texaco 8 DuPont 9 Chrysler 10 Associated Press SOURCE: The Associated Press IBM Chairman Louis Gerstner Jr faces reporters at a news conference after the firm reported an $8 billion quarterly loss Fort Worth Sjar-Telegram Defense Small oil firm taps opportunity By Jack Smith Fori Worth Sur-Teletnm it FORT WORTH US oil production has TexlandsayS sunk to a 35-year low Crude prices have cascaded below levels of six rOUfdl industry years ago and a fractious OPEC is threatening to send prices plunging further environment The giant American oil companies are shedding domestic properties and devoting ever-larger per- brines lower 1 centages of their drilling budgets to foreign explo- ration- cost more Amid this troubled industry environment Tex- land Petroleum of Fort Worth epitomizes the op- tacerhnifc i portunities still available in the United States to iease cnoices I I small oil companies with a sharply focused strat- egy companies "We're absolutely in the right business" insists TTQ RJ "Bob" Schumacher the relentlessly upbeat SCMeDaCKin Ub i president of Texland an 80-employee company that this year expects to post revenues exceeding (More on OIL on Page 10) i i projects' approval expected House panel's package includes F-l 6 Osprey i By Ron Hutcheson Fort Worth Sur-Tdegram Washington Bureau WASHINGTON The House Armed Services Committee was ex- pected to approve a 1 994 defense bud- get last night that would fund every major Tarrant County defense program including Lockheed's F-l 6 fighter Setting up a confrontation with the Senate the House panel was expected to approve $725 million for 24 new F-16s next year plus $71 million as a down payment for additional fighters in 1995 "It's a very positive bill for our area defense industry" said Rep Pete Geren of Fort Worth a committee member "I'm pleased with the way it's worked out" The House committee's expected endorsement of the Fort Worth-built F-l 6 would come less than a week after the Senate Armed Services Committee voted to cancel Air Force orders for the fighter The aircraft's future will probably remain in doubt until September or October when House and Senate negotiators draft the final version of the defense budget The F-l 6 the only aircraft in full-scale production at Lockheed Fort Worth Co has been a mainstay of Tarrant County's economy for two de- -t cades The House bill also includes nearly 80 million for the V-22 Osprey a tilt-rotor troop transport being jointly developed by Bell Helicopter Textron of Fort Worth and Boeing Helicopters in Ridley Township Pa Although the aircraft faced an an-: nual fight for survival during the Bush administration President Clinton's (More on BUDGET on Page 10) 'l -1 1 US crude oil production Declining oil HjP 19831993 prlcoa 9ftw i Closing price for light sweet 8 ClFEj twerude traded on the New York 'a'jsN Mercantile Exchange 7 83' 84' 85' 86' 87" 88 89' 9ff 91' 92 93' i 'Average daily production in millions of barrels itor "Average production (or the first six months of the year in millions ot barrels ssKSM SOURCE: American Petroleum Institute ihhhi Yesterday 19 I S1842 I June "nfX A UVAW Fort Worth Si tr-Tdejram PaULMoSELEY "Bob" Schumacher Texland Petroleum president says it costs 40 percent less to drill a well in West Texas than it did 1 2 years ago during the oil boom Fort Worth Starlilegram American's Crandall to take stand in trial By Kathryn Jones The New York Timet GALVESTON Robert Crandall chairman of American Airlines' parent AMR Corp is not a defendant in the air fare antitrust case being heard in US District Court in Galveston Nonetheless Crandall and his outspoken fiercely competitive style are on trial The star witness in American Airlines' defense of charges that it engaged in predatory pricing Crandall will take the stand today to try to refute the contentions of Continental Airlines and Northwest Airlines Those carriers say that American set fares so low last year that it would lose money but so would the weaker competitors who might be forced out of business Lawyers for Continental and Northwest have tried in two weeks of making their case to link Crandall to meetings memos and conversations about the fare cuts portraying him as a ruthless competitor who aggressively sought ways to crush rivals They have also suggested that Crandall's staff trying to please him produced figures to show that Ameri-(More on TRIAL on Page 9) Robert Bass Dallas partners reach deal to buy Dutch-owned food companies Dowoll report Robert Bass Dow Jon A new opening Countrywide Credit picks Piano for office 3HOO 330O -T I 13 14 16 16 19 SO ai S2 23 26 27 Oil ftafrur Representatives for Bass and Haas Wheat declined to comment on the news reports yesterday but did not dispute their accuracy Acadia Partners LP a longtime Bass investment vehicle Keystone Inc (formerly The Robert Bass Group) and Haas Wheat agreed to buy the food companies from Invus Group Ltd the North American investment arm for Artal of the Netherlands Bank loans including more than $500 million from Chemical Bank will finance the purchase American BanJterreported Chemical Bank also has previously committed money to Acadia most recently in the group's (More 6n BASS on Page 9) ByJimFuquay Fort Worth Star-Telegram Nine months after Fort Worth billionaire Robert Bass agreed to join up on some deals with Dallas investment firm Haas Wheat Partners the team has landed its first joint acquisition The group has reached an agreement to pay about $1 billion for several food companies to their Dutch owner according to reports in The Wall Street Journal and American Banker The food companies are regional brands including Mother's Cookies Pickles San Francisco Sour Dough Bread and Stella Cheese CO and will be combined into a company called Specialty Foods Corp the Journal said mi- sL By MitchellSchnurman Fort Worth Star-Telegram DALLAS Countrywide Credit Industries the nation's largest mortgage banking company said yesterday that it will soon open a large data-processing and loan-servicing office in Piano north of Dallas The move the company's first major expansion outside of California is expected to eventually create about 1 000 new jobs for North Tex- Contract September ans Countrywide officials said "We think it will take about three or four years to reach 1000 employees but that depends on the market" said Rich Lewis Country-wide's executive vice president and chief administrative officer "If the market is good we could grow a lot faster" Countrywide based in Pasadena Calif already has a significant presence in Texas It has 20 retail offices (More on MOVE on Page 9) 1 Oil posted price: Gas futures: $211 Fort Worth Star-telegram i.