All, U.S. Presses EU To Open Markets (scroll down);
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The News & Observer Raleigh, NC
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Rubbermaid to cost Newell $6.3 billion
WOOSTER, Ohio - In the biggest of its more
than 75 acquisitions in the past three decades,
Newell is buying Rubbermaid, which makes
plastic containers, Little Tikes toys and [ Graco ]
strollers, for $6.3 billion in stock and assumed
debt.
The deal announced Wednesday would
significantly expand Newell's product line, which
includes Levelor window blinds, Calphalon
cookware, Ace combs and Rolodex address
organizers.
It's the second major consumer-products combination this week, following
Clorox's $2 billion bid for First Brands, known for Glad plastic wraps and
trash bags.
Rubbermaid stock surged $6.12.5 to $32, while Newell shares fell $5.25 to
$43.81.25.
Rubbermaid, based in Wooster, Ohio, has been a lackluster Wall Street
performer lately. Prices for resin, the building block of many plastic
products, have been high, and the company has failed to invest in many
foreign markets. It has closed 11 factories in the last three years.
Rubbermaid and Newell officers said there would be some layoffs, though
they did not specify how many. Tom Ferguson, president and chief
operating officer of Newell, said Newell and Rubbermaid would maintain
their headquarter offices in Illinois and Ohio.
* * *
[ Conoco ] stages record initial stock sale
Houston - Conoco, the eighth-largest U.S. oil producer and refiner, raised
$4.4 billion Wednesday in the biggest U.S. initial stock sale ever, according
to Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, the lead underwriter.
The Houston-based oil company, public until it was bought in 1981 by du
Pont sold 191,456,427 shares at $23 each, or about a 32 percent stake.
The sale comes after a two-month drought for new stock sales - one of the
worst since the mid-1970s. "It's a heck of an achievement," said Dick Smith,
syndicate manager for [ Nationsbanc Montgomery Securities ] .
Final terms of the transaction, which surpasses [ Lucent Technologies ] '
$3.03 billion sale in April 1996, haven't been set.
At $22, based on 1997 earnings per share of $1.52, Conoco would sell at a
price-earnings ratio of about 15 - well below the average ratio of about 21
times earnings for large, integrated oil companies, said Edward Maran, an
analyst with A.G. Edwards & Sons in St. Louis.
"It's a big discount, so I would expect a rapid 15 percent movement
upward" once Conoco begins trading today, Maran said.
* * *
Dell's NT selection victory for [ Microsoft ]
Round Rock, Texas - Dell Computer said it has chosen Microsoft's
Windows NT operating system to replace its computers running Novell's
network operating system, another sign that Microsoft is gaining momentum
with NT.
Financial terms of the agreement weren't disclosed.
Dell, the largest direct seller of personal computers, said it would replace
225 server computers running Novell's Netware software with about 25
servers running Windows NT 4.0. Novell has been losing market share to
Microsoft as more small businesses and corporations adopt Windows NT.
* * *
[ Tenneco ] will trim about 1,000 jobs
Greenwich, Conn. - Tenneco plans to cut about 1,000 jobs, or 2 percent of
its work force, in a cost-cutting program that will save as much as $145
million a year.
The reductions will come from Tenneco's two main businesses, packaging
and auto parts. Tenneco makes Hefty trash bags, Monroe shock absorbers
and Walker mufflers.
* * *
Enron adding to fiber-optic network
Houston - [ Enron ] , the largest natural-gas and electricity trader in the
nation, said it's building a 2,300-mile fiber-optic route in the western United
States in the next phase of its plan to create a nationwide communications
network.
The new route, which the company hopes to complete by the fourth quarter
of next year, will run from Salt Lake City to Houston. Enron, which already
has laid 3,400 miles of fiber-optic cable in California, Oregon and
Washington, declined to disclose the new project's cost.
* * *
International
U.S. presses EU to open markets
PARIS -- U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said Wednesday
that the European Union should open its markets more to foreign trade.
"We're looking in the U.S. at a very challenging international situation
because of the financial crisis," Barshefsky told reporters at the U.S.
Embassy in Paris.
Washington still "does not wish to restrict imports but retain {its} open
market policy. But Europe also must pursue such a policy."
Barshefsky's comments came a day after the government reported the U.S.
trade deficit had widened to $16.77 billion in August, the United States'
biggest monthly trade deficit ever.
She noted that Europe is in the process of setting a new mobile- phone
technology standard that is incompatible with the technology developed in
the United States. She said the exclusionary standard would "discriminate
against U.S. technology. It has the effect of making it highly costly for U.S.
handsets to be modified to be sold the EU."
* * *
U.S., South Korea resolve auto dispute
WASHINGTON -- U.S. and South Korean negotiators have resolved an
automobile trade dispute that had prompted Washington to threaten
economic sanctions, the White House said Wednesday.
Commerce Secretary William Daley said the deal concludes a U.S.
investigation of South Korean auto market access.
The deal means increased market access in South Korea for U.S. auto
manufacturers, White House press secretary Joe Lockhart said. Under
terms of the deal, a 1995 U.S.-South Korea agreement will be broadened
to include minivans and sport utility vehicles; the tax burden on South
Korean buyers of U.S. or other imported autos would be sharply reduced;
and South Korean imported-auto tariffs would be locked in at 8 percent, the
current effective rate.
U.S. negotiators earlier had demanded that South Korea lower its tariffs on
imported vehicles from 8 percent to 2.5 percent, a level applied to foreign
cars sold in the United States.
[ General Motors ] said the agreement was "definitely a step in the right
direction."
* * *
Nortel wins contract from Spanish concern
MADRID, Spain - [ Northern Telecom ] has won a $200 million contract to
help build a national network for Spanish telecom-services provider Jazz
Telecom SA.
Jazz Telecom, or Jazztel, is building an optical fiber network linking Spain's
major cities and submarine cable to Britain to provide Internet, video
conferencing and other services. The new network is scheduled to begin
operations next year.
(Copyright 1998)
_____via IntellX_____
Publication Date: October 22, 1998
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