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Technology Stocks : COMS & the Ghost of USRX w/ other STUFF -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jhild who wrote (15189)	5/4/1998 1:26:00 PM
From: Scrapps	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 22053

Pushing the buttons hey? <ggg>

To: jhild who wrote (15189)	5/7/1998 5:44:00 PM
From: DMaA	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 22053

I bet you're a Pepsi drinker too. Pepsi Files an Antitrust Lawsuit Against Coke Over Fountain Drinks By NIKHIL DEOGUN Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ATLANTA -- PepsiCo Inc. filed an antitrust lawsuit against Coca-Cola Co., accusing its arch-rival of attempting to "freeze" PepsiCo out of the business of selling soft drinks in restaurants and movie theaters served by food distributors. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, centers on what is known as the "fountain business" -- the practice of selling fountain-dispensed drinks in restaurants and other locations. Coca-Cola has long dominated this segment of the U.S. soft-drink industry and has about a 65% share. But PepsiCo, which has only about a 25% share, has recently made an aggressive push to crack Coca-Cola's lock on this market. In its suit, PepsiCo accuses Atlanta-based Coca-Cola of using "its market power to perpetuate its monopoly" by barring independent food-service distributors from supplying Pepsi to restaurants if they also supply Coke. Food distributors supply restaurants with a range of products, from paper cups to food items to soft-drink syrup. In certain instances, if a restaurant wanted to sell Pepsi and a food distributor agreed to supply the restaurant with Pepsi products, Coca-Cola would "cut the distributor off," the suit alleges. In other instances, Coca-Cola has "threatened the distributor with the loss of Coke products" should it also supply Pepsi. The suit doesn't name the restaurants or the distributors. PepsiCo, based in Purchase, N.Y., says other companies don't impose restrictions on food-service distributors to carry competing brands. A Coca-Cola spokesman declined comment and said the company hadn't yet been notified of the suit. While Pepsi has sued Coke in the past on breach-of-contract matters and Pepsi and Coke bottlers have filed legal actions against each other, this is the first antitrust action Pepsi has filed against its bigger competitor. (Just last month, Pepsi sued Coca-Cola's Indian subsidiary of illegal and unethical business practices in that country.) Pepsi alleged that Coca-Cola is violating the Sherman Act by "attempting to monopolize the market for fountain-dispensed soft drinks distributed through independent food-service distributors throughout the United States." Pepsi, which is seeking unspecified damages, is asking the court to stop Coke from entering into "exclusionary agreements" with independent distributors that prohibit the distributors from carrying Pepsi's soft drinks. The fountain business has been long dominated by Coca-Cola and accounts for about 24% of U.S. soft-drink volume, according to a recent research report by William Pecoriello, an analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. He estimated in his report that Coke derives 30% of its U.S. profit from the fountain channel. (Coca-Cola gets 80% of its profit from overseas markets.) For years, PepsiCo suffered in this business because of the company's ownership of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC. Coke managers convinced restaurant chains that selling Pepsi products was the equivalent of putting money in the pockets of its rivals. But last year, PepsiCo spun off those chains as a separate publicly traded company, Tricon Global Restaurants Inc. Since then, Pepsi has been aggressively trying to beef up its fountain business. It has made some progress, winning accounts such as Planet Hollywood, Hard Rock Cafe and Bojangles but has yet to grab a huge account. Coke supplies McDonald's Corp., Burger King and several other large chains.