Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Monday, October 18, 1999

Yahoo! chat rooms to get real vocal

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Yahoo! Inc., a leading Internet site, is adding a new voice feature to its online chat rooms that lets participants talk to each other. Internet users with a computer microphone and speakers can use Yahoo! Chat to participate in group discussions, family conference calls or other online services. The voice feature from Yahoo! uses technology developed by Mountain View-based HearMe. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Yahoo! previously joined with HearMe to make voice services available to its Yahoo! Instant Messenger service.

Delta plans to buy remainder of Comair

ATLANTA -- Delta Air Lines Inc. said it will buy the part of Comair Holdings Inc. it doesn't already own for $1.91 billion, giving the third-largest U.S. airline the largest carrier in the industry's fastest-growing segment. Delta said it will pay $1.8 billion, or $23.50 a share in cash, a 31 percent premium to Comair's closing price Friday of $17.94. It also will assume $110 million in Cincinnati-based Comair's debt. The acquisition gives Delta 82 50-seat regional jets serving the Midwest and Florida.

Ford's earnings beat expectations

DEARBORN, Mich. -- Ford Motor Co., the world's second-largest automaker, said third-quarter earnings rose 11 percent as U.S. truck sales and cost reductions helped it overcome losses in South America and Europe.

Net income climbed to $1.14 billion, or 90 cents a share, from $1 billion, or 80 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. That exceeded the average estimate of 85 cents a share from analysts. Revenue increased 16 percent to $38 billion from $32.6 billion.

In other news . . .

TOKYO -- Daiei Inc. shares fell 5.2 percent after Japan's second-largest operator of general merchandise stores and supermarkets posted a loss for the six months that ended on Aug. 31. The Kobe-based company said its first-half loss widened almost tenfold as it paid workers to retire early and cut other costs in a bid to restore profitability

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Of Mutual Concern

News for mutual fund investors

Monument fund invests in telecommunication

Monument Funds Group today said it has started a fund to invest in telecommunications companies.

Like the Monument Internet Fund and Medical Sciences Fund, the new Monument Telecommunications Fund will invest in a specific sector of what the company calls the "New Economy."

The telecommunication fund will be managed by J. Michael Gallipo, who had been an investment analyst for Van Eck Global of New York.

Last week, the fund manager announced a three-for-one split for Monument Internet Fund effective Oct. 29.

Prudential promotes fund group's manager

NEWARK, N.J. -- Prudential Investments, the money-management unit of the largest U.S. life insurer, picked Philip Schettewi as head of the group overseeing about $100 billion in stocks for institutions and individuals.

Schettewi, 41, joined Newark, N.J.-based Prudential in August to run the $30 billion "value" stock management team, a new position. That team was overseeing six mutual funds, including Prudential Equity, Prudential Equity Income and Prudential Mid Cap Value, the company said.

The equity group manages almost 30 mutual funds and insurance-related stock portfolios known as variable annuities.

Prudential Insurance Co. of America, the parent company, manages or administers about $375 billion in assets.

Fund firm T. Rowe Price slated to join S&P 500

BALTIMORE -- Fund manager T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. is scheduled to replace Data General Corp. in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.

The date for Baltimore-based T. Rowe Price's inclusion in the S&P 500, the benchmark for U.S. stock market investors, depends on when Data General is acquired, said David Blitzer, S&P's chief economist. EMC Corp., the world's No. 1 maker of corporate computer-storage systems, is expected to rival Data General by year's end.

T. Rowe Price, which has been part of the mid-size S&P 400 MidCap Index, would become the second money manager in the S&P 500. Franklin Resources Inc. was included in the S&P 500 in April 1998.

Vanguard to disclose mutual funds' tax bite

PHILADELPHIA -- In a move aimed at helping investors better evaluate the performance of their mutual funds, the Vanguard Group is starting to publish the after-tax returns for 47 of its stock and balanced funds.

The nation's second-largest mutual fund firm is the first fund company to disclose after-tax returns on a broad range of mutual funds.

Vanguard says taxes have deducted about 2.5 percentage points per year off the return of its U.S. stock mutual funds over the past 10 years.

Investors in the company's largest portfolio, Vanguard Index 500 Fund, saw taxes take away 1.2 points per year.

On the high end, taxes erased 3.5 points a year from the return of actively managed Vanguard Windsor Fund.

Vanguard's step may lead other fund groups to start providing similar disclosures, but investors should keep in mind that the return information is not customized and will vary from person to person, said Geoff Bobroff, a fund consultant in East Greenwich, R.I.

Investors take hard look at European companies

LONDON -- Fund managers in the United States and the Britain are buying shares of continental European companies at the fastest rate since 1995, according to Merrill Lynch & Co. European investors outside Britain "have been strong buyers for the past five months and even the Japanese are showing some interest," said Trevor Greetham, a global strategist at Merrill who compiled the monthly survey of 276 investors.