Copyright 1999 The Baltimore Sun Company
THE
BALTIMORE SUN
March 10, 1999, Wednesday ,FINAL
SECTION: BUSINESS ,2C Business Digest
LENGTH: 1296 words
SOURCE:
From staff and wire reports
BODY:
Mercantile board
declares quarterly dividend of 22
Mercantile Bankshares Corp. said
yesterday that its board of directors approved a regular quarterly cash dividend
of 22 cents per share on its common stock, payable March 31 to stockholders of
record March 23.
Baltimore-based Mercantile, Maryland's largest
independently owned banking company, has paid a 22-cent dividend each quarter
since June 30. Before that, it paid a 20-cent dividend after a 3-for-2 stock
split that was effective June 30, 1997.
Mercantile operates 21 community
banks in Maryland, Virginia and Delaware, and has $17.6 billion
in assets.
GTS Duratek attributes 4th-quarter loss to charges
GTS Duratek, the Columbia-based hazardous waste disposal company,
reported yesterday that a series of one-time charges resulted in a net loss of
$3.6 million, or 29 cents per share, for the fourth quarter of
1998, compared with net income of $2 million, or 10 cents per
share, for the same portion of 1997.
Without the charges -- which
included an accounting change, the closeout of a contract and the write-off of a
facility in South Carolina -- the company posted a record operating profit of
$6.3 million for the quarter, up 34 percent from
$4.7 million a year earlier.
For all of 1998, excluding
the charges, operating profit increased 61 percent to $11.6
million on revenue of $160.3 million.
Martek
Biosciences posts $3.6 million loss
Martek Biosciences
Inc. reported a fiscal first-quarter net loss yesterday of $3.6
million, or 24 cents per share, on revenue of $1.6 million,
compared with a $3 million net loss, or 22 cents, on
$2.3 million in revenue a year earlier.
Martek, which
makes an infant formula additive, other nutritional products and products for
drug research, blamed the 32 percent revenue drop primarily on a nonrecurring
$1.1 million licensing fee it received in the first quarter of
1998.
The Columbia company said sales of its nutritional products in the
quarter increased by $130,000, or 24 percent, to
$675,000, most of that from increased sales of the supplement
Neuromins.
Oracle, Compaq, IBM, Novell invest in Linux provider Red Hat
Four computer industry heavyweights -- Oracle Corp., Compaq Computer
Corp., International Business Machines Corp. and Novell Inc. -- will make equity
investments in Red Hat Software, a distributor of the Linux operating system,
Red Hat said yesterday.
The companies will join Intel Corp., Netscape
Communications Corp. and two venture capital firms that became equity investors
in September. None disclosed how much it invested.
Linux was developed
in the early 1990s by a Finnish student named Linus Torvalds. The grass-roots
software is edging into the mainstream as users embrace its flexibility and its
lower susceptibility to crashing. The software is free and available over the
Internet, but Red Hat sells packaged versions and technical support.
Lycos' largest shareholder quits board in protest
Lycos Inc., a
top Web destination, may be forced to remain independent or seek a new suitor.
Its largest shareholder quit the board yesterday to protest its proposed merger
with the USA Networks cable-television company.
The resignation by David
Wetherell helped push Lycos' stock up 24 percent as investors, who have balked
at the deal's terms, expressed relief that it could fall through.
Wetherell's venture capital firm, CMGI Inc., owns 18.5 percent of the
Waltham, Mass.-based Lycos, which provides Internet search and information
services. His protest adds to doubt about a three-way deal that would merge USA
Networks' cable-TV network with Lycos and Ticketmaster Online Citysearch, an
online seller of tickets to concerts and other events.
GM, Ford won't
meet fuel-efficiency standards
General Motors Corp. and
Ford Motor Co. say they won't meet federal fuel- efficiency
standards this year because of sales of big pickup trucks and
sport-utility vehicles.
The Corporate Average Fuel Economy law requires
that an automaker's entire production of passenger cars must average 27.5 miles
per gallon and that its light trucks average 20.7 mpg. Automakers who don't
comply for seven years must pay a fine and present a plan to get back in
compliance.
Ford said its 1999 model-year cars and trucks fell short of
the targets, and GM said its truck average didn't make the grade.
DaimlerChrysler AG said it met both standards.
$750,000
signing bonus given new Boeing CFO
Boeing Co.'s new chief financial
officer received a $750,000 signing bonus when she joined the
aerospace company in mid- December.
Deborah Hopkins, formerly vice
president of finance and chief financial officer for General Motors Europe, will
receive a base salary of $450,000 and a bonus of
$360,000 this year, according to a Boeing filing with the
Securities and Exchange Commission.
The filing also revealed that Ron
Woodard, the former chief of Boeing Commercial Airline Group who was asked to
resign in September, got $1.35 million, including a lump sum of
$900,000 for signing a departure agreement that also provides
him with a guaranteed retainer of $19,000 a month as a
consultant to Boeing through November 2000 if he does not find another full-
time job.
Parent of 7-Eleven to adopt chain's name
Southland
Corp., parent company of worldwide convenience store chain 7-Eleven, says it
will change its name to 7-Eleven Inc. in order to attract investors more easily.
Dallas-based Southland, which created the 7-Eleven brand in 1946, said
it would propose the change at its shareholder meeting April 28. The outcome is
a foregone conclusion because the company and a Japanese joint venture partner
control 65 percent of outstanding Southland shares.
"The Southland name
dates back to 1927 and was appropriate when the company had several diverse
operations. However, today our only business is 7-Eleven," President and Chief
Executive Officer Clark Matthews said.
Oracle buys E-Travel for
$35 million in cash
Oracle said yesterday that it
bought closely held E- Travel Inc. for $35 million in cash,
adding self-service travel to its stable of electronic commerce offerings.
Oracle Corp. said it bought the company for its E-Travel system, which
lets users plan and book corporate travel using a standard Web browser.
The system, Oracle said, reduces costs associated with travel brokerage
fees, increases the use of preferred suppliers, and makes it easier to ensure
that employees are abiding by a company's travel policy.
Singer's Taiwan
plant to be sold in restructuring
Singer Co., the world's leading maker
of consumer sewing machines, will sell its factory in Taiwan, the company's
second-largest plant, in a continuing restructuring.
Singer said it will
take a $30 million charge from the sale during the current
quarter, but that will be offset by gains of $47 million in
property sales over the life of the four-year restructuring.
The factory
will go to a Taiwanese investment group for $58.6 million, and
the buyer is assuming $48.6 million of Singer's Taiwan-related
debt, giving Singer $10 million cash in the deal. Singer will
continue to manage the plant under a five-year contract with the buyer.
Hilton Hotels to acquire Back Bay hotel in Boston
Hilton Hotels
Corp., the third-largest U.S. hotel company, said it agreed to buy the 316-room
Hilton Boston Back Bay, continuing its buying spree of hotels in big cities and
vacation spots.
Hilton will pay about $80 million, the
Boston Globe reported, but a Hilton spokeswoman declined to confirm that price.
Hilton is buying the franchised property from closely held DHM
Associates LP.
LOAD-DATE: March 11, 1999
