THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 26, 1996 TAG: 9601260505
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
A six-person contingent from the Greater Richmond Partnership will travel to Austin, Texas, to court Motorola Inc. suppliers, vendors and employees. The Greater Richmond Partnership helped convince Motorola last year to build a $3 billion computer chip plant in the area. The Austin trip will allow face-to-face meetings with representatives of the companies that work closely with Motorola's operations in Austin. Not only will the members of the group visit vendors, they will talk with Motorola employees who may be interested in relocating to the Richmond area plant, which will be built in the West Creek office park in Goochland County. (Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News) Crestar introduces pledged-asset mortgage
Crestar Mortgage Corp. is launching a new no-down-payment mortgage loan. Richmond-based Crestar Bank said it introduced the pledged-asset mortgage in Virginia this month. Bank officials said the mortgage is the first of what Crestar hopes will be a series of loans designed for people who don't want to make a down payment on a house. In the program, Crestar will accept a certificate of deposit owned by the borrower or a relative as collateral for a loan. If the certificate is equal to 10 percent of the value of the house, Crestar will lend 100 percent of the price of the house.(AP) Sprint changes name 360 degrees
Sprint Corp. said its soon-to-be-jettisoned cellular-phone subsidiary will change its name to 360 Communications Co. when the spinoff is completed within the next few months. Sprint announced last July that it would spin off the cellular unit as a separate company to avoid conflicts with a new nationwide cellular-like network called Personal Communications Services that it and several cable-TV operators plan to build. Sprint Cellular has 1.3 million customers in 86 U.S. markets, including Hampton Roads. (Staff) NationsBank to buy Charter Bancshares
NationsBank Corp. plans to buy Charter Bancshares for about $94.7 million in stock, increasing its presence in Houston and Galveston. Charlotte-based NationsBank, the largest bank in Texas, already owns about 42 percent of Charter Bancshares through two investments totaling $13 million. Under the deal, each share of Charter Bancshares will be exchanged for .385 shares of NationsBank common stock. The deal is valued at $94.7 million. (AP) by CNB