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Strategies & Market Trends : World Outlook -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Glenn Norman who wrote (718)	1/13/2000 9:20:00 AM
From: Glenn Norman	Respond to of 48989

Mexico Candidate Fights for Image Associated Press Online - January 13, 2000 01:16 By KEN GUGGENHEIM Associated Press Writer MEXICO CITY (AP) - The biggest issue in the Mexican presidential campaign these days is opposition candidate Vicente Fox's image. Literally. Fox, considered the opposition's best hope of ending the ruling party's 70-year hold on the presidency, has been trying to get his photo in a "V-for-victory" pose included as part of his electoral coalition's logo on the July 2 presidential ballot. When an electoral court rejected the proposal, Fox's campaign came up with another idea: the same logo with a silhouette replacing his photo. On Wednesday, the court rejected that as well. Fox said the alliance would try to fight the ruling. "If the first decision was illegal and arbitrary, this is doubly so," he said at a news conference. The governing Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI, has a powerful electoral tool in its logo. It is red, white and green - the same colors as the Mexican flag - and is as widely recognized in Mexico as the Coca-Cola emblem is in the United States. For the decades in which the PRI held a monopoly on power, many voters cast ballots for any name alongside that logo in a gesture that often was more of a statement of patriotism than an exercise in democracy. Fox has tried to defeat the PRI's powerful machinery and deep-rooted support through an intensive media campaign, which he began an unheard of three years before the election. His face has become a fixture on television and on billboards, and he has gone from unknown governor of the small state of Guanajuato to become the main rival of the PRI's candidate, Francisco Labastida. Given Fox's wide recognition - and that neither of the parties backing him has massive, national support - having his photo on the ballot would be a boost in what could be a close election. Fox is running under the banner of a coalition formed especially for the election: the Alliance for Change, consisting of Fox's center-right National Action Party and the small Green party. The emblem originally submitted by the alliance showed a smiling Fox in the victory pose against a backdrop of the logos of the two parties. Electoral authorities originally approved the logo, but their decision was reversed Saturday by the electoral court. Though photographs were not expressly prohibited, they were also not explicitly permitted, the court ruled. It also said the emblem was an unacceptable form of propaganda. Fox was furious, using a crude word to describe the decision as a "dirty trick." The party came back with a trick of its own: submitting the same logo two days later, but with a white silhouette in place of Fox. The court ruled that wasn't a significant change. It said it still violated electoral laws because it served to boost a specific candidate rather than represent the political parties. It gave Fox's campaign 24 hours to present another logo, or it said it would have one designed for the alliance. Fox said the alliance would probably let the court carry out its threat. "Let's see if they make better emblems than they do judicial decisions," he said.

To: Glenn Norman who wrote (718)	1/13/2000 9:42:00 AM
From: Glenn Norman	Respond to of 48989

Mexico Acer unit operations unchanged by buyout plans Reuters - January 12, 2000 21:05 MEXICO CITY, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Computer retailer Acer Computec Latino America (ACLA) will continue normal operations in Mexico after completion of a buyout offer by its parent Taiwan's Acer Inc. , officials said on Wednesday. ACLA does not have plans for layoffs in Mexico where it has two plants, in the northern cities of Ciudad Juarez and Mexicali, and where it produced about 300,000 computers last year for sale throughout the Americas, ACLA President Juan Manuel Rojas told a news conference in Mexico City. On Tuesday, Acer Inc. announced its offer to buy back ACLA at 6.10 pesos per share and to delist it in March as a key strategy for staying competitive. The buyback offering price is a premium of 45 percent over the book value of the company per share as of September 1999, which was 4.22 pesos per share, and 69 percent over the stock price of 3.60 pesos per share on the Mexican stock exchange at close of trade on Monday, before the announcement, Rojas said. The buyout offer, seen concluding within two months after government authorisation is obtained, is part of an aggressive, restructuring as the company de-emphasises its hardware business and moves into software, communications, Internet and other areas, Acer Inc. said. Rojas said in the last six months, Acer computers have become the second most sold computer brand in Latin America according to International Data Corporation (IDC). Rojas said computer sales were a key part of getting more and more people on line in Latin America, where home ownership of personal computers is low. He said 65 percent to 70 percent of Acer computers sold through a financing deal with Mexico's dominant phone operator Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex) were to first-time computer buyers. He said that the buyback offer would include approximately 95.4 million shares, of which 35.87 percent are held by Acer Computer International Ltd. (ACI) of Singapore, 30 percent are floated on the Mexican stock exchange, and the rest are divided among the original investors in the Mexican company and ACLA executives. He did not name those shareholders. Earlier on Wednesday, ACI said it would consider the sale of its 35.87 percent stake to Acer Inc.