Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Wednesday, August 27, 1997

Local SBA offic
seeks nominees for award

The U.S. Small Business Administration's Honolulu office will begin taking nominations for the 1998 Small Business Person of the Year Awards program.

The SBA award is designed to recognize entrepreneurs throughout Hawaii for their business's growth, their innovations and their response to adversity.

Categories include Small Business Person of the Year, Exporter of the Year, SBA Young Entrepreneur of the year. The SBA also will have a special advocacy award for individuals supporting women, minorities and veterans.

Nominations are due Nov. 31 at the SBA's Honolulu office at the Federal Building. For further information call the SBA at 541-2990.

FTC sends warnings
to 31 'Net advertisers

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Trade Commission has sent warnings to 31 advertisers who may be selling get-rich-quick coupon schemes illegally over the Internet.

The FTC said yesterday it sent the advertisers electronic mail messages, warning them that their ads may violate federal law by making exaggerated or unsupported claims.

The FTC and the Coupon Information Center, an industry group, said they found the advertisements during a sweep of Internet sites last week. The targeted Internet sites advertise business opportunities in coupon booklet sales and in work-at-home coupon clipping services.

While many sites claim participants can earn hundreds of dollars or more per week by selling coupons, the FTC said there was little money to be made. Many coupons were worthless once they were sold or transferred, officials said.

"There is only one legitimate way to use a coupon -- clip it out and use it to save money on the purchase of the designated product," the FTC said.

Philip Morris won't hike
dividend, cites settlement

NEW YORK -- Philip Morris Cos. said it won't increase its quarterly dividend to conserve cash for the tobacco industry's proposed $368.5 billion national settlement of health-related lawsuits, Bloomberg News reported.

The maker of Marlboro cigarettes and Kraft cheeses, which is expected to pay about half of the settlement, said in July it would re

evaluate its dividend and stock-buyback plans because of the national agreement.

The move is part of Chairman Geoffrey Bible's effort to convince Congress and the White House that the industry can't afford to pay more. U.S. legislators have said that the settlement isn't severe enough and want to increase the industry's penalties if teenage smoking rates don't fall, among other things.

"Philip Morris is trying to lay low," said Robert Sanborn, portfolio manager at Harris Associates' Oakmark Fund, which holds 8.9 million shares of Philip Morris.

In today's trading, the shares of the New York-based company rose 121/2 cents to $45.371/2.

Novell shares retreat
after CEO denies rumor

NEW YORK -- After gaining more than 10 percent yesterday on rumors of a possible takeover, shares of Novell Inc. fell today when its chief executive ended the speculation.

Chief executive Eric Schmidt was quoted on the cable channel CNBC as saying the Provo, Utah, company is "not for sale." Schmidt was speaking at the Java Internet Business Expo conference in New York. He did not discuss the rumors further.

Yesterday investors snatched up shares of Novell after the magazine PC Week reported the company may be bought by International Business Machines Corp.

The article cited Novell's low share price and recently scaled down work force as attractive attributes for potential buyers. It named IBM the "prime suitor."

In today's trading, Novell shares were at $9.44, down 53 cents on the Nasdaq stock market.

IBM, Sun, Netscape
form software alliance

NEW YORK -- Seeking to speed new Internet business applications, IBM, Sun Microsystems Inc. and Netscape Communications Corp. say they will collaborate on developing Java, a key language used for Internet software.

Under the unusual collaboration, announced yesterday at Sun's Java Internet Business Expo, the three will contribute staff to a center managed by Sun focused on implementing upcoming releases of Java, Sun's widely used programming language for developing software for the global computer network. The deal will let IBM and Netscape work on modifications to product lines even as Java itself undergoes changes, an arrangement that means the companies will open their development work and technology to each others' scrutiny. The companies expect the pact will mean that improvements to Java will find their way into marketable products in far less time than at present.