Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Monday, March 2, 1998
Expo to explain 'tools' to help elderly in Hawaii
An exhibition of equipment and services to help make life easier for the elderly and the disabled will be held March 25-26 at the Neal Blaisdell Center Exhibition Hall.Called the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Tools for Life Expo, the event will include more than 30 educational seminars on such topics as assisted-living technology and laws affecting the handicapped. The show itself is free but there will be a charge for the seminars.
The organizers said last year's show drew nearly 3,500 attendees, including the public and businesses, such as buyers from hotels, restaurants and other businesses.
Sponsors are the Hawaii Centers for Independent Living, Hawaii Assistive Technology & Training Services and the Commission on Persons with Disabilities, with support from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. For information call Sharon Fountain at 537-3072 or Hawaii Centers for Independent Living, 522-5400.
AIG matches rival's bid for American Bankers
NEW YORK -- American International Group Inc. said today it sweetened its bid for Miami insurer American Bankers Insurance Group Inc. to $2.7 billion, matching rival Cendant Corp.'s $58-a-share hostile bid.The offer -- boosting New York-based American International's original offer by $11 a share, or 23 percent, is the latest step in an increasingly nasty fight between AIG and Cendant, a marketing juggernaut based in Parsippany, N.J., and Stamford, Conn.
American Bankers, a seller of credit-related insurance, is one of the industry's most lucrative business lines.
A Cendant spokesman had no immediate comment.
Sunbeam to buy Coleman, two other companies
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. -- Sunbeam Corp. agreed to buy Coleman Co. and the makers of Mr. Coffee machines and First Alert smoke alarms for a total of $2.5 billion in stock, cash and assumed debt, as Chairman Albert Dunlap plans to slash costs at the three struggling manufacturers.The acquisitions are Sunbeam's first under Dunlap, a turnaround expert who cut 6,000 jobs, shuttered more than three dozen plants and made Sunbeam consistently profitable since taking over in July 1996.
The acquisitions of Coleman, a maker of tents, lanterns and camping accessories, coffee-machine maker Glenwillow, Ohio-based Signature Brands USA Inc. and Aurora, Ill.-based First Alert Inc. will almost triple Sunbeam's annual revenue to almost $3 billion and "meaningfully" add to its earnings within 12 months, Dunlap said.