The Buffalo News from Buffalo, New York • 3

All Monday August 7 1989 WlBKIIJg The Buffalo News Business Key Indicators DOW3pm 3471 268816 DOLLAR Tokyo today 173 yen 13978 GOLD London today $36725 BONDS 30 yr treasury 03 810 Business Today Rikilis amily buys GC Murphy ROCKY HILL Conn (AP) Ames De partment Stores Inc today announced the sale of its Murphy Co stores including in the metropolitan Buffalo area to the Rikilis amily Corp for $80 million GC Murphy of McKeesport Pa operates 100 variety stores and 25 Bargain World stores in 13 states The stores had a combined revenue of $175 million in the year ended Jan 28 and employ about 3500 people The sale was made to a Rikilis subsidiary known as II Holdings Inc Il Holdings op erates about 1300 variety stores through its McCrory Corp subsidiary Some Westwood marketing shifted Bristol Myers Co will transfer marketing 4 and sales duties for several of its consumer products from Westwood Pharmaceuticals Buffalo headquarters to other divisions within the parent company in a move that will affect about eight local employees Bristol Myers has decided to transfer sales and marketing responsibility for Keri Alpha Keri Presun and ostex products a to Bristol Myers Products the company said Because of the transfer which will take ef fect Oct 1 about 30 Westwood salespeople working outside of Buffalo will be offered oth er positions within the company The local workers also will be offered other positions within Bristol Myers Westwood said the transfers will allow it to concentrate its resources on its ethical and pre scription product lines and give Bristol products division the chance to enter the over the counter therapeutic skin care market with proven brands Westwood said it will continue to make Keri Alpha Keri Presun and ostex in Buffalo and will support the brands with research and development efforts Smith says Saturn will help GM DETROIT (Reuters) Many analysts be lieve General Motors Corp must act soon to reduce its assembly plant capacity They say GM has up to five more US factories than it can profitably operate in the current slumping market In an interview GM Chairman Roger Smith said the skidding share of the US car market is not yet under control but he believes the automaker will show gains in 1990 because of the new Saturn compact and other models Smith said GM expects to keep paying its 7 $3 a share annual dividend for the time being despiff lower profits and weaker auto sales Were prostitutes an bribe? DALLAS (AP) A federal indictment al leges that executives of a troubled savings and I loan used funds to provide prosti I tutes hunting trips and other perks to a former Texas savings and loan commissioner while he supervised the Dallas thrift I The 37 count indictment also alleges that Patrick King former president of Vernon Savings Association illegally used the money to to make $55000 worth of political contributions to several congressmen includ i ing former House Speaker Jim Wright Tex 1 as and former US Rep Jack Kemp Ham burg King is scheduled to be tried today on fed I oral charges of conspiracy misapplication of I funds and making false entries on books in connection with the use of thrift money King was the deputy thrift com missioner before he joined Vernon 30 futures traders to plead guilty CHICAGO (AP) As many as 30 com modity traders indicted in a federal probe of futures exchanges eventually will plyad guilty according to a published report I Attorneys for some of the 46 traders indict ed last week said guilty pleas could come as I early as Wednesday when 21 defendants who 1 traded in the Japanese yen pit at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange are scheduled to be ar raigned The Chicago Tribune said today Northwest buyout completed MINNEAPOLIS (AP) Los Angeles inves tor Alfred Checchi has signed the acquisition papers to complete his $365 billion buyout of NWA Inc the parent of Northwest Airlines I The 41 year old former Marriott Corp trea surer said all publicly held shares of NWA common stock have been purchased for $121 each officially ending the takeover battle initi I ated by Checchi in late March Business facts Bi99est discount Ik I 111 store chains Ultra Sales in m'ilOns $28 of dollars i $24 43 $20 i $16 gf $12 lWal mart IS I 1 58 Birge 1 1 q1 '87 sales from non discount store operations I SOURCE: Company annual reports Knight Ridder Tribune NewsDOMINIC TRUPIANO Marvin Davis makes bid for United Air $200 a share offer would put value of Chicago based airline at $43 billion Reuters CHICAGO UAL Corp parent company of United Airlines today said it has received an unwanted takeover offer from billionaire investor Marvin Davis just two years after a massive restructuring that fended off a previous takeover run UAL has come under pressure to take steps to push its stock price up and even though it termed the Davis offer highly conditional the stock soared The company would offer no details but a Wall Street source said the Davis offer was worth more than $200 a share putting a $43 billion price on the Chicago based parent of United the No 2 domestic carrier the board of directors has not decided whether a sale of the com pany is in the best interest of the com shareholders and other constitu encies in keeping with its fiduciary duty the board will give careful consid eration to Mr UAL Chairman Stephen Wolf said in a state ment UAL shares jumped $34125 to $198625 after a delayed opening on the New York Stock Exchange lifting the transportation index 6241 points to 131241 the biggest one day gain in history for the index The UAL news lifted other airline shares AMR Corp was up $1875 at $69875 USAir Group Inc rose 875 cents to $52875 and Delta Airlines Inc was up $1625 at $7375 Privately held Trans World Airlines also may seek a merger or other combi nation as a possible corporate strategy according to an internal memo sent to TWA managers UAL said its board will meet on Wednesday but disclosed no details of the offer from Davis who was spurned in June by NWA Inc which owns Northwest Airlines and was recently taken private The $365 billion buyout of NWA by a group led by Los Angeles investor Alfred Checchi has ignited interest in other airline stocks as speculators bet on the next takeover target in the group UAL often mentioned as a possible target has seen its stock rise from about $117 a share in mid June when NWA agreed to be acquired by the Checchi group to near $190 last month But it had fallen back recently as a bid for the airline did not emerge Analysts said the stock was worth more than the current price on Wall Street value it at $250 a said Shearson Lehman Hutton Inc an alyst Helane Becker "1 am leaning toward $335 a share but that is somewhat speculative" said bond analyst Raymond Neidle of Dil lon Read UAL has faced turbulent skies in the past two years In 1987 it changed its name to Allegis Corp to reflect a strat egy of linking its hotel car rental and airline businesses But the strategy never took off and the company restructured returning to its original name and selling off its non airline operations for $37 billion to avoid a takeover threat from New York investors Coniston Partners Davis is believed to hold less than 5 percent of UAL Saul Steinberg a New York inves tor currently holds a 69 percent stake in UAL and Texas investor Robert Bass is said to have bought a 2 percent to 3 percent interest United recently surpassed by Amer ican as the largest airline last month reported a 14 percent increase in its second quarter profit from a year earlier or the quarter ended June 30 the airline reported net income of $141 million or $652 per share on revenue of $25 billion The company had reve nue of $898 billion in 1988 Bonesicles are new canine treat developed marketed by area woman BILL DYVINIAKBuffalo News By MATT SMITH News Business Reporter Denise Noll has found a way to help panting canines get through the long hot dog days of summer After years of searching for a new treat to give her dogs the 30 year old Getzville woman created a frozen bone shaped treat called Bonesicles in 1987 She tested her product on her own dogs and anyone she could get hold of and got a howling re sponse Then Ms Noll decided to market her invention kept getting the same response from every Ms Noll said all wanted Realizing she had a hot product in her frozen treats but not knowing where to go with it she called her cousin who is a frozen food broker in Cincinnati He agreed that Bonesicles had a future on the market and he contacted other brokers to get their opinion Two years passed and while Ms Noll was busy pouring every ounce of energy into developing her product and establishing a business she was told that a man in Ohio had begun marketing the first ever frozen pet snack hurt to know it was my idea and then have someone else use Ms Noll said my mother (Mary Ann Becker) and my friend Leo Stutz were behind me 200 per cent and that helped me stay with About seven months ago Ms Noll left her job in an endodontics office and without any prior business expe rience started her own company named DeLemar Inc She has been running what is vir tually a one women operation ap proaching local retailers about her dog treats is so much involved in starting a she said takes months to get everything from the federal food agency approv al to the logo approval put all my time into this and all my money and all I can hope for is the She recently received her first or der from Super Duper on Walden Avenue near the Thruway Mall an independent store Ms Noll said her Bonesicles have been on the market for four weeks and have been selling Denise Noll holds two Bonesicles frozen bone shaped treats for her pets Dapper left and Viper v' I rr very well Bells supermarkets also recently agreed to sell Bonesicles and the product should be available in that chain in a few weeks Ms Noll said Bonesicles come in an ice cube tray like carton that contains seven frozen treats selling for $189 per box Made with meat byproducts bo nemeal non fat dry milk water and chlorophyll Bonesicles contain no chemicals or preservatives Ms Noll said is not only a summer Ms Noll added love them all year She said she is now in the process of meeting with the buyer of the 48 franchised Super Dupers as well as other retailers throughout the area hope to take the product down South and out West in the See Bonesicles Page Al 3 Lear heads group buying Channel 29 By ALAN PERGAMENT News RadioTV Critic Norman Lear best known as the creator and producer of in the is planning to make WUTV Channel 29 part of his family of televi sion stations Sources said that group Act' III Broadcasting plans to file papers' with the ederal Communications( Commission later this week to pur chase the independent Grand Island 1 based station from Citadel Communi i cations At that time the purchase! price will be announced Citadel paid about $154 million for it in 1984 I Channel 29 would be the eighth sta tion in the Act III group Lear is the! principal stockholder in the group which also owns an independent Roch ester station WUH It purchased WUH in April for $75 million Lear and Bert Ellis the chief execu 1 tive officer of Act III were unavailable! for comment But industry sources said Act III officials were in Grand Island late last! week to check out the station and they I plan to finalize the deal this week Besides "All in the amily the legendary Lear also produced "The Jef 1 and and Channel 29 currently is engaged in al battle for the independent television audience with WNYB Channel 49 Channel 49 is owned by the Buffalo! Sabres who put the majority of their! road games on the station I WNYB also will take over the ox? Broadcasting schedule from WUTV on Sept 1 ox is doing much better na tionally than it has been doing on! Channel 29 The switch sparked some controver 1 sy WUTV said it declined to renew ox because so many of its programs were being telecast by CHCH TV in! Hamilton Ont Channel 29 earns aj good deal of its advertising revenue from Canadian companies oxj claimed it wanted to change indepen dent stations here in hopes of attracting a bigger audience Ironically Channel 49 also owns the rerun rights in this market to in the which it carries at 7:30: pm weekdays 1970s comedies broke new ground in television by featuring high volume arguments about key political and social issues of the day Con artists are using religion to bilk investors By JOHN DOYLE Associated Press television programs has provided schemers with a ready made audience! for phony advertising claims the sur vey said 1 In addition con artists often are able to escape or delay prosecution by taking advantage of their fear of embarrassing their church or faith if they report an investment scam Officials said the results re 1 fleet only part of the problem because it considered only scams where inves tor losses exceeded $500000 The survey detailed major invest ment scams and state investigations in volving a total of 15000 victims in Alabama Arizona California lorida Georgia Illinois Massachusetts Mis souri New York Oklahoma North Carolina South Dakota Texas and Washington Officials also noted that no religious group appears to be either more or susceptible to con men State securities! regulators have investigated schemes preying on black Protestant churches! Greek Orthodox congregations and Hispanic Catholic parishes WASHINGTON Con artists claiming God is their co investor have bilked thousands of Americans out of more than $450 million in the last five years state securities regulators warned in a study released today The national survey a joint effort of the North American Securities Admin istrators Association and the Council of Better Business Bureaus detailed inves tigations into investment schemes with religious overtones in 15 states Con men go to any length including the exploitation of the per son the church or their deeply held religious beliefs if they think it will James Mcllhenny president of the Council of Better Business Bu reaus said at a news conference today will do anything they can to take their 30 pieces of In releasing the report officials cited the recent controversy surrounding Washington area lawyer Thomas Root who was pulled from the Atlantic Ocean last month with a gunshot wound after a mystery filled plane ride and crash Root has not been charged with any wrongdoing But officials said Root represented investors in Sonrise Management Inc a Columbus Ga firm that raised mon ey for religiously oriented radio station licenses Sonrise is under investigation by North Carolina securities officials of the growing number of investment con artists who are out to fleece the flocks of the faithful" John Baldwin president of the securities association told reporters Baldwin who is director of the Utah Division of Securities as well as head of the national organization of state level securities regulators added that giously oriented swindles are one of hottest tickets for investment con The increase in prophets of has resulted in a surge of state level complaints from consumers about fraud and abuse by self pro claimed financial planners con artists claiming to be endorsed by local and national church officials and givers of investment advice about coins precious metals real estate and oil and gas well pro grams" according to the survey 1 III ciiiLgiu avaiiw uuiiuivu miv report on the aithful: The The growth of religious oriented alse Prophets of the Investment magazines radio stations and world inciuaea: A former preacher and Sunday school teacher now serving four years in prison who conned more than 600 investors in 20 states believed they were dealing with a man blessed by God with extraordinary business abilities" The former treasurer of a large Alabama church also now imprisoned who traded on his position of trust to take an estimated $18 million from in vestors who were promised an unbe lievable return of up to 30 percent a month Swindlers who bilked 10000 in vestors in Utah out of $215 million by falsely claiming connections to the Mormon hierarchy An oil and gas drilling company ordered by Massachusetts and Missouri authorities to stop selling stock to in vestors who were told the firm would use Old Testament prophecy to decide where to drill in modern day Israel The survey noted that scam artists cite Biblical predictions of disaster or social chaos to woo investors for phony Report claims schemes with religious overtones have netted $450 million The a cecd scams outlined oy me guiu ui idic win The Buffalo News Business Today.