The Wichita Eagle from Wichita, Kansas • 15

7B WEDNESDAY January 19 1994 9 1N4 Tilt WeMh Eigh md Bmomi MMifcig Ca Morning Una £Q)clDlchUaOagle Crown General cinemas talk a deal i BUSINESS IN BRIEF By David Algeo Tha Wichita Eagle A deal betweea two major Wichita theater owners is in the works but officials disclosing much of the stray line General Cinema Cos a Massachusetts corporation that owns 11 movie screens at Towne East Square and Towne West Square is negotiating the sale of the theaters to Crown Cinema Crap sources said Crown is a privately held Kansas City Mo firm that owns about 160 screens in Kansas Missouri and Ohio In Wichita the company owns 14 screens at Cinemas East Cinemas West and Pawnee Four Theatres If General's Wichita operations are sold to Crown the latter would reign as the city's leading exhibitor of movies at least briefly In the No 2 spot is American Cinemas a Wichita-based company that owns 18 screens American plans to erect 10 more screens at a proposed luxury theater complex on Wichita's west side General and Crown officials are keeping mum about their plans though General notified its employees late last year that a change of ownership was pending General owns about 1300 screens nationwide but has been selling properties Jay Shapiro a General spokesman In Massachusetts refused to confirm that a deal Is In the works Richard Durwood president of Crown declined to comment Crown owns Cinemas East Cinemas West and the Pawnee 4 Theatres The company used to own the Twin Lakes Cinema but closed tt a year ago citing low revenues General owns the Towne East Cinema I ft theaters as well as the Towne East Square Court Cinemas IH Thru VL General formerly owned by Harcourt General also owns the Towne West Cinema No 5 not situated In the top 25 markets The company has been trying to mar ket Its Wichita operations for more than a year A deal with another Kansas City Mo company reportedly was struck last year but tt caved In after American Cinemas announced plans to build Its 10-screen luxury theater In west Wichita Crown had made the second-highest bid for the General properties so Gener at entered into negotiations with Crown The talks probably wont conclude until late this week or early next sources said General Cinema managers In Wichita referred inquiries to Crown Fleming closing 5 offices to trim operating costs Fleming Companies said Tuesday In Oklahoma City that it will eliminate its five regional stall offices The Pleasanton Calif office already has closed Others are to dose in Kansas City Kao Danas Memphis Tens and Philadelphia The food marketing company said the changes were expected to cut employment by at least 2000 and lower operating costs by at least $65 million a year Net earnings for the quarter and year will be reduced by about $62 million or $168 a share Builder plans Plaza-like development Development firm Poag ft McEwen Memphis Term plans a high-fashion retail development in Johnson County that would be a smaller version of Kansas City's Country Club Plaza Town Center Plaza is proposed for a site In Leawood along the growing 119th Street corridor between Roe and Nall avenues east of Overland Park Northwest to make stock offering Northwest Airlines said Tuesday it plans to sell 20 million shares of stock to raise about $400 million by the end of March Its first public stock offering since the Minneapolbtiased line was taken private in a 1989 leveraged buyout The airline has lost more than $1 billion in the 1990s and taken $6586 million more in onetime charges Two given probation in loan fraud Two men convicted of Illegal loan brokering were sentenced Tuesday to two years probation after they paid more than $13000 in restitution to their victims Teddy Baker 43 of Wichita and Richard Kirby 48 of Gainesville Texas had each been convicted of tour felony counts of violating Kansas loan broker law Butler County District Judge Charles Hart sentenced them to 1-3 years in pifeon before ordering probation Baker and Kirby were charged with taking large fees" in exchange for prombes to obtain loans They took $10000 from an Andover couple whose home was destroyed by a tornado and $3400 from a Derby couple The promised loans were never made The cases were investigated by the Kansas securities commissioner's office and prosecuted by Butler County District Attorney Michael Ward Angell resigns from Fed post Wayne Angell resigned Tuesday as a member of the Federal Reserve Board effective Feb 10 His term on the board expires Jan 31 Angell of Ottawa could have stayed in the post until a successor was named by President Clinton and confirmed by the Spnnte Clinton administration officials have recommended that the president nominate Brookings Institution economist George Perry to the posL Clinton aides have raid they welcomed the opportunity to replace Angell with someone less stngteinlnded about fighting inflntton Tramp says Aladdin too expensive Developer Donald Trump said Tuesday In New York that changed his mind about buying the Aladdin Hotel to enter the Las Vegas gaming market "The number we were discussing was $51 million but we thought that was a high Trump said Breadmaker an appliance on the rise Associated Press CHICAGO The Romans were the first to free cooks from the daily chore of baking bread and the Japanese are the latest to advance the cause The Romans did it by creating the first commercial bakeries two centuries before Christ the Japanese by giving us the breadmaking machine more than 2000 years later The breadmaker has become the latest necessity in millions of kitchens and a star at the International Housewares Show this week Sales of breadmakers have about doubled each year since the appliance's modest Introduction In 1988 readring an estimated 2 million units last year Manufacturers say sales could double again this year helped by prices that have fallen to as low as $100 thing is like the coffee machine people have to have fresh coffee In the said Tom Laca-lamita spokesman for Welbilt Appliance of New Hyde Park NY the dominant maker of bread machines is the same principle: People have to have fresh bread In the morning" There's nothing to tt Dump in all the Ingredients set the timer and step back or go to bed At the appointed time the machine mixes kneads shapes and bakes the bread white rye wheat or just about any specialty flavor Or use the machine to mix the dough for pizza and take tt out before the baking step For people allergic to wheat there are recipes for bread wwd with rice flour or tapioca flour Some visitors to the show expressed reservations about the flavor of machine-made bread One said she detected a metallic taste others said the bread they traded was better than that from supermarket bakeries but not as good as handmade at home or from a neighborhood bakery Others were enthusiastic "The taste is definitely comparable with handmade bread if you use the right said Richard Cusick a baking instructor at the Cooldng and Hospitality Institute at Chicago For people with a busy schedule and an interest in eating more grain and fiber without additives the bread machine can be a blessing Cusick said "They appreciate food prepared fresh as opposed to having chemicals in bread to keep tt fresh longer" be said teocfaWPM Tom Lacalanfta of WdbiK shows a bread-making machine at the International Housewares Show in Chicago Tha machines am becoming a necessity in many American kitchens Groundwater still foul as companies EPA jockey EARNINGS By Jean Hays The Wichita Eagle Residents living In a polluted area In north Wichita will have to watt longer before someone provides them with clean drinking water Legal maneuvering between the companies bring Mamed for the pollution and the federal government means more delays fra die 1000 people living In foe contaminated area near 57th and North Broadway In October the Environmental Protection Agency ordered the four companies Coastal Refining and Marketing Farmland Industries Midland Refining Ca and Wilko Paint to immediately provide bottled drinking water to the residents and pay to hook up the families to a public drinking water supply by foe end of Raymond Bosch an EPA attorney said foe agency was concerned that foe case would get dragged down in litigation The EPA has not dqdded what to do next Basically the EPA is choosing to fight the battle under a different law The Safe Drinking Water Act under which the order to provide bottled water was fifed allows companies to go to court to Mock actions by foe federal government But companies cannot go to court to challenge orders given under foe Superfund law The four firms are still under a court order issued under foe Superfund law to repay the federal government $223438 fra its investigative expenses further Investigate foe extent and sources of foe contamination and propose a plan to clean it up 1991 Coastal Farmland and Wilko have said they were unfairly bring blamed for the pollution Midland declined to comment About half of the people living In the area have paid to hook up to Park City's public water supply The other half still rely on private wells for their water The groundwater in the area is contaminated with trichloroethylene an odorless solvent that can cause liver and kidney damage and benzene which can cause leukemia and aplastic anemia a potentially fatal disease that attacks foe blood-producing organs Coastal one of foe four firms named In foe order appealed EPAU actions to a federal court In Denver The EPA saying tt hoped to avoid a long-drawn out legal battle withdrew Its order before any hearing Egos technology stakes dnve Paramount megadeal Honeywell Inc Minneapolis on Tuesday reported fourth-quarter warning! of $1126 million or 85 cents a share compared with $1098 million or 79 cents per share one year earlier Sales tor the fourth quarter-ended Dec 31 were $142 billion compared with $171 billion fin- the final quarter of 1991 Citicorp New York said It earned $575 million or $146 per share for the three months ended Dec 31 up from $280 million or 53 cents a share during the 1992 fourth quarter Chase Manhattan Cap earned $313 million or $143 per share for the fourth quarter above the $169 million or 87 cents a share earned during the 1992 fourth quarter A key element to profits was quarterly trading revenues of $167 million up 46 potent from year-ego levels Chemical Banking Com earned $347 minion or $143 per share for the fourth quarter above the $304 muiton or $149 a share during the 1992 fourth quarter warning! were $255 million in the fourth quarter and up from $229 million in the fourth quarter 1991 NationsBank said it earned $373 minion or $147 per share for the fourth quarter That exceeds earnings of $234 million or 92 cents a share during the 1992 fourth quarter Chrysler Corp Highland Park Mich earned a record $777 million in the fourth quarter or $111 a share compared with $112 a share or $356 million in the same period in 1991 Revenue was $12 trillion 1 op 17J percent from $104 trillion in the fourth quarter of 1991 Chryslert best previous fourth quarter was In 1984 when it earned $607 million GM and Ford win report eanrings in the next few weeks CaopMlwnEagls saws sendee and staff reports Associated Press NEW YORK Paramount Communications going cheaply Two tenacious rivals have slugged It out for four months in a battle to control the entertainment and publishing powerhouse Industry analysts say the $10 billion price that Paramount seems close to fetching is 15 percent to 25 percent more than its assets are wrath Paramount stock moved higher after a revised bid for the prized moviemaker TV show producer and book publisher In trading Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange Paramount rose $145 a share at $80 various operations are estimated to be worth about $74 billion That was Just below the deal that Paramount's management negotiated In September when It agreed to merge with Viacom Inc fra about $84 trillion In cash and stock Then cable television shopping channel operator QVC Network became involved It now Is now Paramount's preferred partner and its latest offer is valued at about $101 billkm But Viacom which owns cable networks including MTV VH-1 Nickelodeon and Showtime raised its bid Tuesday to what tt said was about $104 billion and left Its tender offer open until Jam 31 Why are Viacom and QVC prepared to pay such a large premium aboveover what Para assets are fundamentally worth? Barry Diller the chairman of West Chester Pa-based QVC left as foe head of Par mounfS movie division a decade ago after clashing with Paramount chairman Martin Davis Sumner Redstone the chairman and majority owner of Viacom called the deal he struck to buy Paramount last September an indestructible marriage made in heaven Ego alone account for the hundreds of millions of dollars that both men's backers are throwing into foe contest Timing has a lot to do with flie price Paramount is one of the last large entertainment franchises likely to come available for some time Aba technological advances are within sight that could transform the means by which entertainment and information are delivered and a host of communications enter-tainment and media companies are scrambling to align themselves to take advantage of those changes film library Includes about 900 titles and it owns thousands of TV episodes It owns foe publishers Simon A Schuster and Macmillan Madison Square Garden two New York sports teams the basketball Knicks and hockey's Rangers and five theme parka Treasuiy bills Average rates at auction In percent as of Jan 18 i I I I Note Th iww dtaoount rata understate the actual return to Invaatora 306 percent tor Vwemonlh bSa and 124 parcant tor aiwnonlh bis XafcfeSUr DiteM TV aaaeiqajM a a a a a i a aa4iA a a a a i aaqae 0 a a mm 'V.