Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 23, 1993 TAG: 9307230121
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Prices on some computer memory chips have almost doubled in recent weeks, and one reason is an explosion at a Japanese plastics factory.
The July 4 fire destroyed the Sumitomo Chemical Co. plant in Nihama, which supplies 60 percent of the epoxy resin used to manufacture DRAM-dynamic random access memory-computer chips.
Cherrytree Software Development Corp. of Roanoke and Bristol said a one-megabyte memory module that sold for $55 last week costs $120 now, the result of the fire.
The rise "could add hundreds of dollars to the cost of upgrading computer memory," said Cherrytree spokesman Fred Fuller.
Leading U.S. manufacturers say they have adequate supplies of the material to make the computer chips for several months, but are scrambling to determine what to do if there's a shortage later.
In effect, some computer industry analysts say, the prices are rising in anticipation of a shortage, not because one exists.
- Washington Post
Texas marketer to recall `gold card'
WASHINGTON - A Texas direct marketer has agreed to reword its nationwide mailings offering for $29.95 a "gold card" - which some consumers mistake for a credit card, the U.S. Postal Service said Thursday.
While admitting no wrongdoing, Dallas-based Credicorp agreed to halt the disputed mailing and will refrain from using similar language in future mailings, Postal Service counsel Dan Bryant said.
The proposed consent decree will become final if approved by the Postal Service's judicial officer.
The Postal Service and the Better Business Bureau had complained that the mailings did not make clear that the card was a catalog membership card good for purchases from Credicorp, and not a regular credit card.
- Associated Press
Travel Channel plans venture in Europe
NORFOLK - Landmark Communications Inc. said Thursday it will launch The Travel Channel in Europe in the first quarter of 1994.
Landmark, parent of the Roanoke Times & World-News, said the cable television operation has established offices in London and is beginning to hire staff. The network also plans to expand into Scandinavia and the Benelux countries.
The Travel Channel is carried by more than 700 cable affiliates serving 17.5 million subscribers in the United States. Landmark acquired the channel from Trans World Airlines in March 1992 and also owns The Weather Channel.
- Associated Press
by CNB