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Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Tuesday, April 25, 2000

IBM to buy back shares, lift dividend

ARMONK, N.Y. -- International Business Machines Corp., the world's largest computer maker, said it will buy back as much as $3.5 billion of its shares and boost its quarterly dividend by a penny a share to 13 cents.

The buyback represents as many as 32.9 million shares at yesterday's closing price of $106, or 1.83 percent of IBM's shares outstanding as of March 1.

IBM shares were up $6.25, or 6 percent, at $112.75 today on the New York Stock Exchange.

U.S. consumers less confident

NEW YORK -- Consumer confidence slipped in April for the third consecutive month as the stock market staged a sharp retreat, but Americans still think business growth and job opportunities will be good in coming months, the Conference Board reported today.

The board's Consumer Confidence Index dropped to 136.9 in April from a revised 137.1 the month before. That was down from the record 144.7 registered in January and the lowest reading since 130.5 last October, the business-supported study group said. The index compares results to its base year, 1985, when it stood at 100.

Still, the reading was stronger than Wall Street analysts had expected, and Lynn Franco, director of the board's research center said there were no signs that the consumer spending boom that has fueled U.S. economic growth is weakening.

International Paper bids for Champion

NEW YORK -- International Paper Co., the world's leading paper maker, is bidding $6.2 billion in cash and stock to acquire rival Champion International Corp., hoping to unseat a competing offer from Finnish paper company UPM-Kymmene. Champion, which is based in Stamford, Conn., had agreed in February to be acquired by the giant European forestry company, but a subsequent 20 percent slide in UPM's share price caused the value of the UPM's all-stock offer to slip from $6.6 billion at the time it was announced to about $5 billion.

The offer announced this morning could trigger a bidding war.