ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 27, 1996 TAG: 9612270051
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
Westinghouse, Infinity win merger approval
WASHINGTON - Removing the last regulatory obstacle, the government agreed Thursday to let Westinghouse Electric Corp., and Infinity Broadcasting Corp., merge into the nation's largest radio group.
The Federal Communications Commission's approval of the $3.9 billion deal, announced in June, had been expected. The new group will operate 82 radio stations nationwide. The Justice Department cleared the deal in November.
Westinghouse did not indicate when it plans to close the deal.
To comply with new federal ownership rules, Westinghouse has filed applications to divest two radio stations in Chicago and three in Dallas-Fort Worth, the FCC said. The two companies agreed earlier to sell one station in Philadelphia and another in Boston. The new ownership rules say a company can't own more than eight radio stations in the largest local markets.
-Associated Press
General Mills OK'd to buy Chex cereals
WASHINGTON - General Mills Inc. can move forward with its $570 million purchase of Ralcorp Holdings Inc.'s Chex brand cold cereals, but with some restrictions, the Federal Trade Commission said Thursday.
St. Louis-based Ralcorp makes the Chex brands. It is the fifth-largest cereal maker and largest producer of private label cereals - products identical or very similar to name brands but carrying the grocery store, retailer or wholesaler name on its label.
Ralcorp keeps its private label business under the acquisition, and Minneapolis-based General Mills has agreed, in a settlement with the FTC, to permit the introduction of private-label competitors to the Chex brands.
The trade commission said the proposed acquisition would boost General Mills' share of the U.S. cereal market to 31 percent.
-Associated Press
Auto strike stalls
S. Korean exports
SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea's auto industry came to a standstill Thursday with the walkout of 150,000 workers protesting parliament's secret passage of a law that curtails labor's power.
An umbrella group of unions called the strike hours after 155 ruling party legislators passed the law during a 6 a.m. session - at which no opposition members were present. If it snowballs, the walkout could be devastating to South Korea's export-led economy.
The law postpones for several years some rights that had been promised to unions. It makes it easier for companies to lay off employees and bans multiple unions at any work site until 2002. It also outlaws until 2000 new umbrella labor groups, including the Federation of Democratic Unions, which called the strike.
-Associated Press
Man held in slaying
of U.S. businessman
MOSCOW - A man charged with trying to extort $1 million from a U.S. businessman is now a suspect in his shooting death, the business weekly Kommersant reported Thursday.
Investigators say Paul Tatum's Nov. 3 slaying was linked to a struggle for control of a prized hotel property, and possibly to Tatum's heavy debts, the paper reported.
The suspect is identified only by his last name, Akhabadze.
Tatum, 41, a native of Edmond, Okla., was shot 11 times as two bodyguards accompanied him to a subway station near the Radisson-Slavyanskaya, an American-Russian joint venture he co-founded.
-Associated Press
LENGTH: Medium: 69 linesby CNB