Fort Worth Star-Telegram from Fort Worth, Texas • 25

TN 'Business Digest 2C Markets 4-10C Tuesday December 4 2001 STAR-TELEGRAM WWWDFWCOM THE MARKETS Dow Jones 976396 Nasdaq 190490 cuts 470 jobs Contract for Jan $2009 Crude oil North Texas Posted Price $1625 Gas futures Contract for Jan $263 Today THE ASSOCIATED PRESSDAVID PHILLIP Laid-off Enron employee Tammie Huthmacher tries to hold back tears while talking with reporters Monday She is one of 4000 workers who lost their jobs at the company's headquarters in Houston Loans will keep Enron operating Sabre as expected reduces its work force because of a downturn in the travel industry By ANDREA AHLES STAR TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER FORT WORTH Sabre Holdings laid off 470 employees or percent of its work force Monday to reduce costs Sabre a Fort Worth travel technology company had warned in October that it would cut as much as 10 percent of its work force because the terrorist attacks of Sept 11 hurt the travel industry Spokesman Michael Berman said Sabre told affected employees Monday morning Most of the cuts were in North Texas Sabre has 6000 employees worldwide and had 3700 in the Metroplex before reduction Laid-off workers will remain on payroll through December They will receive severance packages of approximately two pay for every year of service Sabre is also providing outplacement service and job counseling for those employees a difficult time for our indus- try and we have communicated to employees and Wall Street that we would reduce Berman said One worker carrying personal possessions to his car at the Solana offices in Westlake said that shortly after he got to work his boss told him he was being laid off The 12-year Sabre veteran who declined to give his name said he and other workers knew the job cuts were imminent He was told he would receive four pay in More on LAYOFFS on 7C Enron the largest US bankruptcy bankruptcy protection on Sunday listing nearly Sjfcv Houston-based Enron Corp filed for Chapter 11 $495 billion in assets Top 8 bankruptcies since 1980 in billions Company slashes thousands of jobs as rival Dynegy files countersuit By RICHARD A OPPEL JR and RIVAD ATLAS THE NEW YORK TIMES Enron subsidiaries affected by bankruptcy BAM Leasing Co ENA Asset Holdings Enron Broadband Services Inc Enron Corp Enron Energy Marketing Corp Enron Energy Services Operations Inc Enron Enron Enron Enron Enron Enron Company Enron Corp fired 4000 employees and lined up $15 billion in financing Monday to keep its main businesses on life support while it reorganizes in bankruptcy court Its top lawyer also disclosed that it is negotiating with three potential investors who could emerge as white knights and gain control of the troubled company Enron attorney Martin Bienenstock did not name them and cautioned that any deal could take months to consummate The company once the largest energy trader sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy More on ENERGY on 8C TXU and XTO Energy of Fort Worth adjust to lessen fallout from bankruptcy 7C Energy Services Inc Energy Services LLC Metals Commodity Corp North America Corp Power Marketing Inc Transportation Services ECONOMY Reports offer good news on economy Three reports raise hopes that the economy could begin to rebound early next year Story on 2C INVENTION What is IT? a scooter The mystery project that was touted for almost a year as and turned out to be a two-wheeled battery-powered scooter resembling a push-mower that travels at up to 12 mph and uses gyroscopes to stay upright Story on 2C SPORTING GOODS New line of clubs will be unveiled Nike Golf says its long-awaited line of clubs developed by Tom Stites in Fort Worth will be shown for the first time next month at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando Fla and will be on shelves by spring Story on 2C INTERNET ExciteAtHomein bankruptcy deal Bankrupt ExciteAtHome will get at least $320 million from its biggest remaining cable customers over the next three months in exchange for keeping its high-speed Internet access on Story on 2C FOOD SERVICE Partnership to supply raceways A partnership formed by Compass Group and Levy Restaurants has signed a longterm agreement to provide food service management at the six NASCAR raceways owned by Speedway Motor-sports including Texas Motor Speedway Story on 3C MARKETS Investors unsure about recovery A mix of economic data leaves stock investors puzzling over how long the economy will take to recover and prompts many to cash in recent profits Story on 4C SOURCES www bankruptcydata com Enron Corp THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Hicks to build in Frisco Astros officials say Enron can keep its name on the Houston ballpark as long as its regular payments on the 30-year $100 million contract are met 7C Little profit seen in new market Utility panel asking firms to declare whether they will compete The Texas Public Utility Commission faces last-minute concerns about electric rates under deregulation tors to confirm by Wednesday whether they will compete when the new market opens The three-member commission also plans to make its much-anticipated decision this week and perhaps as early as Wednesday during a meeting with Texas lawmakers on whether to open the market on schedule Jan 1 is a last Commissioner Brett Perlman said am not convinced that there is a problem but if there is I want to know about it before we get Several possible electric competitors have questioned a More on DEREGULATION on 8C By RA DYER STAR TELEGRAM AUSTIN BUREAU AUSTIN Although electric deregulation is scheduled to begin in one month officials with several power companies question whether they can make enough money to operate in the new market Because of those llth-hour concerns the Texas Public Utility Commission called Monday for possible competi- fTTffiTl Southwest Sports Group is turning its sights to Collin County with a planned $300 million development for minor league baseball and new StarCenter By SEAN WOOD STAR TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER FRISCO Dallas millionaire Tom Hicks plans to move a minor league baseball team from Shreveport La to Frisco and FTT1S SSTWf make it the centerpiece of a mixed-use commercial development Southwest Sports Group is partnering with Mandalay Sports which will move the Shreveport Swamp Dragons in 2002 and will operate the team Southwest will be a partial More on PROJECT on 3C Complaint goes long-distance Todd Mason COM Ml VIAKY Dec 1 after which date the Texas Unlimited Plan became the Texas Statewide Calling Plan Capping in-state calls at 1500 minutes Bell long-distance effectively limited Cowles to 50 minutes of Internet access a day Cowles picked up the phone to ask how Bell could say one thing and do another when his troubles began Bell representatives ignored his point saying simply that More on MASON on 3C Southwestern longdistance service had just what Skip Cowles needed out there on the Information Dirt Road in Palo Pinto County The Texas Unlimited Plan offered unlimited in-state calls for $3995 a month meaning the Cowles household could surf the Net like city slickers Bell briefly dropped the plan this spring for lack of interest but soon learned that it had a devoted following have been A change of plans by Southwestern Bell long-distance raises the ire of one customer in Palo Pinto County Southwestern Bell long-distance wrote plan subscribers in March we are pleased to let you know that you may continue to use the Texas Unlimited Plan for as long as you stay at your current Forever in this case meant To help you quickly navigate the Star-Telegram look for summaries with our longer stories Each summary begins with a topic label in white type on a black bar 4 as as as.