The News and Observer from Raleigh, North Carolina • 36

1171WWW11 7 BLISINESS Vh THE NEM OBSERVER THURSDAY MARCH 1 0 1994 TODAY MARKET WATCH WHAT THE INDEXES DID STOCK QUOTES PAGE 9C Feud: Delta Air Lines' head attacks the US-UK aviation impasse Page 12C Economy: Workers' wages aren't keeping up with increases in productivity Page I2C Who's where: Track movement in the Triangle business community In Business Page 12C Looking up: Stocks end mostly higher The Dow squeaks out a 1-point gain on news of a firmer bond market CI rz El DOW 169 closed at 385341 AMEX -089 closed at 46679 500 118 closed at 46706 13 NYSE 030 closed at 25878 01 NASDAQ 093 closed at 79305 WILSHIRE $5291 closed at $4673944 billion Market Beat Page 12C I BRIEFLY Public Service Co seeking rate increase I two sides compromise with the rate of the residential increase being lowered and business rates raised At the heart of the matter is Public Service's desire to narrow the imbalance between what business customers are charged and what residential users pay Although the company's overall rate request calls for an 8 percent hike large industrial customers such as manufacturing plants actually would see their gas bills go down by an average of nearly 3 percent Small businesses and other smaller commercial The typical residential customer would see monthly bills jump to about $58 from its current level of $4950 if Public Service's full request is granted by the state Utilities Commission "We certainly think this is a dramatic increase and we have to consider whether there's any rate shock to customers" said Gene Curtis director of the natural gas division of the Public Staff the commission-sponsored organization that represents rate payers In past rate cases the Public Staff has opposed large residential rate increases Typically the Gastonia gas company which serves the Triangle wants residential customers to bear a greater burden of the increase than commercial or industrial users who would see their rates increase by only about 3 percent Historically Public Service has relied almost entirely on business customers to provide profits while either breaking even or losing money on residential gas use With a rapidly increasing number of homes hooking up to gas the company now wants to earn greater returns on its residential business IN COMPETITION WITH GROCERY STORES A-t10' '4 -'ii 's 1 -0''' 4 vii 3 '--0''Iv-'' 'k'-v''')' f' '--Iti 1 l'N '6 ilpi i '''e 1t' 7 11 '14i-'1'- 1 '-V I '4i '''40 Ii': fy ::411 Or I im '''n ti L44 tt I a- -k 4 1 k' -'171''1-- 7)1 1 4 '1 -i- i :4 A 414 -'4' ltitti -1'' 1 '''4 '''''4 4 1 k' '4N :7 2: j' iii 1 410N iit 4 ''v'''''' '''1r4k4-4' --1- 1 e' i' i ik ''I't l''- g4 A '5 'S- 'A1177 -f 'N'4'ia- If :1 0 -0" -'w r4 LA 'k '-i' -0''''' t'''41 '-----r)i 4'? e-- i ''-'k 1 1 1: with Jenny Foster on the cash register of the first Boston Chicken on STAFF PHOTOS BY JIM BOUNDS Sphinx shareholders sue to block merger 'WILMINGTON Del Pharmaceuticals Corp shareholders have filed a class action suit against the company's directors seeking to block a proposed $72 million takeover of Sphinx by Eli Lilly Co court papers said The suit filed Tuesday in the Delaware Chancery Court says Sphinx directors were in "breach of fiduciary duties" by agreeing to sell the company to Lilly The suit seeks a preliminary injunction against the merger No other information was available Spokesmen for both companies declined comment Under the agreement announced Tuesday Lilly would acquire Sphinx for $6 per share as part of efforts to speed up the development of new drugs Durham-based Sphinx which focuses on drug discovery and development would join Lilly's Research Laboratories and become a wholly owned subsidiary of Lilly Lilly based in Indianapolis already owns 680000 of the 126 million Sphinx shares outstanding a stake it acquired in 1991 for $4 million or $588 a share UNC signs two patent deals CHAPEL HILL University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has signed licensing agreements that will allow the university's patented graphics devices to be used in virtual reality projects at two companies Division Inc in Redwood City Calif and Ives Corp in Norcross Ga each will pay UNC-CH $250000 for use of the school's Pixell-Planes 5 graphic manipulation system and for a Pixel Flow system now in development Pixell-Planes enables creation of three-dimensional images on computer screens and the Pixel-Flow system is intended to allow the images to be manipulated in real time The co-inventors of the systems have said that more than 20 faculty and staff members involved in development will receive a share of royalties from sales of products -Iticorporating the technologies and Raychem form joint venture Network Cable Systems and Raychem Corp announced this week a joint venture to be based in Fuquay-Varina The new company Access Network Technologies will develop and manufacture sealed cable products used to wire local telephone networks and Raychem each own 50 percent of the company Cable Systems is based in Morrisville NJ and Raychem is headquartered in Menlo Park Calif Fleet may cut more than 3000 jobs Fleet Financial Group Inc is expected to cut more than 3000 jobs in an effort to save as much as $225 million annually bank analysts said Wednesday Rhode Island company has 13 consumer loan offices in North -Carolina according to the state's Ranking Commission A spokesman for Fleet refused to comment on bow the cutbacks might affect these offices Origin Technology gets Highwoods space RALIGH Netherlands-based company whose US operations are based in Ohio has leased an office at Highwoods Tower One Origin Technology in Business wil lease 2500 square feet at the North Raleigh office building Paul Fjelsted has been named 'Managing director for Origin's worldwide clientserver practice In fiscal 1992 Origin's North American operations posted $139 million in revenue The parent company BSO employs more than 3500 people in 14 countries and had sales in its 1992 year of $332 million FlON STAFF AND VitRE REPORTS customers meanwhile would be subject to an average increase of about 2 percent the company said "Industrial and commercial customers more than pay their own way" said Rachel Bagley a Public Service spokesman "Those rates subsidize residential" At the company's current growth pace about 5 percent more residential customers are hooking up to gas each year in it' 26-county service area each yea1 SEE GAS PAGE 12C WRDC owners OK sale BY KYLE MARSHALL -e STAFF WRITER RALEIGH The owners of the Triangle's NBC affiliate WRDCTV in Raleigh plan to sell the station to a Louisiana broadcaster who owns stations there and in Texas No changes are planned in WRDC's operations Vickie Street Channel 28's general ager said the buyer Thomas: Galloway of Lafayette La plaiis to keep the station's 35 employees: its NBC affiliation and curretit programming "Galloway's company as- sured me they were planning no changes at all" she said Wednesday "They like what they have seen" Terms of the deal weren't disclosed The Federal Communications Commission must approve the sale which is expected to take between 90 and 100 days Principal owner Paul Brissette of Boca Raton Fla who helped engineer the deal nearly three years ago to buy WRDC from the: former Durham Life Broadcasting Inc in Raleigh said he'S selling because broadcast properties are fetching a premium price "We got an unusually high offer" he said Wednesday "It's a great opportunity" Brissette is credited with up- grading the station's production capabilities and refocusing its programming One of his first big changes was to drop the station's news operation which was mired in last place in the ratings in favor of higher-rated sitcoms and other programming "Just about everything at the station has been changed" Bris-: sette said "The management did a tremendous job of making the station what it should be in this market" Galloway a veteran broadcast owner also owns and operates three Texas TV stations and radio stations in Louisiana Texas and Arkansas For Brissette the sale of WRDC comes less than a year after his partner in the purchase Nashville Tenn investor BW Land-street III sold his interest in the station Landstreet was replaces! as a partner by Rodney Peakea banker from Belleville Kan who owns no other broadcast properties Brissette also is selling his interest in a TV station in Mem- phis Tenn favors lifting ing restrictions The votes angered liberals On the panel who complained of the sponsors' determination to keep the bill free of amendments dis- liked by bankers "If all we're going to do is pass innocuous industry-backed lation then we're probably not doing a real service to the people we came here to represent" said Maryland Democrat Albert Wynn But Winston-Salem Democrat Steve Neal the bill's chief sponsor said it would be good for SEE BANKING PAGE 12C The gas company serving the Triangle wants to raise rates on home users and lower gas bills for big industrial customers BY KYLE MARSHALL STAFF WRITER Public Service Co of North Carolina Inc wants to raise residential gas rates by an average 17 percent in a rate filing submitted to state regulators Wednesday In its first request for a rate increase in nearly three years the Lauren Self left works Boston You won't find any warm fuzzy characters hawking this increasingly popular fast food BY DAVID DISHNEAU THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NAPERVILLE Iii He ain't the Colonel Scott A Beck chairman of Boston Chicken Inc is 35 small wiry and curt with piercing hazel eyes He talks of product not poultry He calls his restaurants stores "We're in the multi-unit retail business" Beck said "We consider it far more specialty retail than we do restaurant" Boston Chicken plans to open its first Triangle store Monday at Glenwood Avenue and Oak Park Road in Raleigh The store is one of eight planned for the Triangle by the end of the year Boston Chickens are to open at the Falls Shopping Center in mid-April and on Capital Boulevard in mid-May Others will be at Six Forks and Strickland roads and in Cary and Chapel Hill Plan would President proposes one-stop processing BY ROBERT NAYLOR JR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON President Clinton on Wednesday introduced his plan to replace an unemployment system that is "simply broken" with one offering "one-stop shopping" for dislocated workers Clinton in a White House ceremony said his Re-employment Act would replace six programs operated at the state and federal levels with one program that offers job counseling and allows workers to apply for jobless bene 'i 3' I' 1-P Al 'It' 0 i'''' 01 't' I ''L" 4 '0 e-' 04 4''t 7 2 1 11 Chicken is purely business 1 oste tittcten ''''''''''7 Tr 71 tl 11 l'tt 'i Nk'1" 'tx'1- s' 7k! p1 1 i- litt 0 l'''' -Y: VV it'i -'1' i i If- 4 I '''''1 r- Ilk 14" Las C14 1--': '1 1t1 -m -41144 If '-06141'' t--- A 4A 4: a v- 4 '4'' f' 4ft i I 7 4 '14 61 i''4 4 ia 't'" tt -z The Boston Chicken on Glenwood Avenue which opens Monday Glenwood Avenue will be the first in the Triangle that came close to the frenzy created by this one" said Merrill Lynch Co investment banker Charles Lewis who set up the stock offering and invested in the company Its appeal he said "was a combination of a very strong concept that was easy to understand and the unbelievably strong pedigree of the management' SEE CHICKEN PAGE 12C House panel interstate bank FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS WASHINGTON Legislation relaxing decades-old restrictions on interstate banking passed a House committee Wednesday over complaints it would permit big banks to ignore poor people and minorities The House Banking Committee endorsed the bill 50-1 But first lawmakers rejected an amendment requiring interstate banks to offer low-cost services to poor people and one requiring banks that expand across state lines to improve their services to the poor and minorities Boston Chicken's plump rotisserie-roasted birds and home style side dishes may be the most comforting fast food around But in an industry long on warm fuzzy characters like KFC's bearded gentleman and Wendy's Dave Thomas Beck is a fowl of another feather: a businessman in the purest prickliest sense That's fine with the investors who snapped up Boston Chicken stock in a wildly successful i remake jobless system initial public offering in November They weren't buying folksy charm They were betting on Beck and his two main partners vice chairmen Saad Nadhir and Jeffry Shearer to repeat the spectacular success they had as franchisees and later executives of Blockbuster Entertainment Inc the ubiquitous video store chain "In all my years in the business I've never seen any IPO placed workers learning new skills Those deciding to open their own businesses could receive benefits while the new enterprises got off the ground The president is asking Congress to spend $13 billion over five years on the program under which community colleges and other local groups would compete with government-run programs for federal money to retrain dislocated workers "This approach will demand accountability" Clinton said Local boards that included business and labor leaders would oversee the training programs SEE EMPLOYMENT PAGE 12C I fits and sign up for training programs in one place The president presented the plan to Congress as he prepares to open an international jobs conference Monday in Detroit "The existing system for unemployment and training is simply broken in that it was designed for an economy that no longer exists" Clinton said He said the system was "designed to hold people until they got their old jobs back" but three of four workers laid off from their jobs in 1993 did not expect to get them back Clinton's plan would provide extended jobless benefits for dis I I I I.