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Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Wednesday, November 3, 1999

Greeting card firms in $162 million deal

CLEVELAND -- American Greetings Corp. is buying Gibson Greetings Inc. for about $162 million in cash in a deal that unites the second and third largest U.S. greeting card makers behind industry leader Hallmark Cards Inc.

American Greetings will pay $10.25 for each of Gibson Greeting's 15.8 million shares, said Morry Weiss, chairman and chief executive officer of American Greetings.

The companies have signed a definitive agreement and their boards have approved the deal. It still requires regulatory approval.

Jobs will be cut, mostly in internal operations, but Weiss said he did not know how many.

The deal will save American Greetings at least $50 million a year, Weiss said. It plans to continue using the Gibson name.

Packard Bell NEC to lay off 1,400

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Citing hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, Packard Bell NEC Inc. is pulling out of the U.S. market for home computers and laying off 1,400 workers by the end of the year.

The pullout closes an era of rapid U.S. decline for Packard Bell NEC, once the second largest domestic maker of personal computers but only No. 6. by this summer, according to researcher Dataquest.

AOL invests $30 mil in Blockbuster site

DULLES, Va. -- America Online Inc., the world's largest online service, said it will invest $30 million in Blockbuster Inc. as part of a three-year agreement that will allow Blockbuster advertise to AOL's subscribers. The $30 million will be used to develop the world's largest home-video rental chain's Blockbuster.com Web site and help deliver high-speed Internet content.





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