THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 23, 1997 TAG: 9701230298
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D3 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: 64 lines
EU will investigate Boeing, McDonnell buy
The European Commission's top competition official said it will open an antitrust inquiry into Boeing Co.'s $13.9 billion acquisition of McDonnell Douglas Corp. amid concern the alliance will strangle competition. The purchase, announced last month, would make Boeing the world's biggest maker of military aircraft and bolster its primacy in the civilian aircraft market, ahead of Europe's Airbus Industrie. (Bloomberg Business News)
Fund-raising set records in colonial city
Colonial Williamsburg's fund-raising efforts set new records in overall contributions and number of donors during 1996. Overall gifts to the foundation are expected to reach about $27 million, a 38 percent increase over 1995's totals. Of the 61,000 contributors last year, 17,000 were new donors. Tickets sold for Colonial Williamsburg increased by 1 percent, from 931,000 in 1995 to 939,000 tickets in 1996. The increase in ticket sales is attributed, in part, to school groups, which purchased 135,00 tickets - 20 percent more tickets than in 1995. (Staff)
Proctor & Gamble to see if new soap will ``float''
Procter & Gamble Co. is introducing a new version of Ivory, the soap on which the manufacturer was built. P&G plans a $60 million advertising blitz to support the Ivory Moisture Care bath bar and body wash. The company also will distribute free samples in March, hoping to reach 40 percent of all U.S. households. The original Ivory, on the market under that name since 1879, will still be available to consumers. But P&G's management expects the new Moisture Care products to eventually outsell the traditional version. And unlike the original Ivory, the new soaps don't float. (AP)
Executive decisions
Tenneco Inc. has named Paul T. Stecko chief operating officer, a new position. Tenneco said Stecko, 52, was most recently president and chief executive of the company's Tenneco Packaging subsidiary, which he joined in December 1993. Tenneco, of Greenwich, Conn., has operations in automotive parts and packaging.
Tiffany & Co. said its president, Michael J. Kowalski, has been named to the additional post of chief operating officer, a newly created position. Kowalski, 44, was named president of the New York jewelry retailer in January 1996, succeeding William R. Chaney. Kowalski joined Tiffany's in 1983 and has served as an executive vice president. The company also said Jeanne B. Daniel, 40, currently senior vice president of merchandising, and Thomas J. O'Neill, 44, senior vice president for international sales, will become executive vice presidents.
In other news
Tumbling stock prices boost pressures for a weak yen - and that in turn may be setting the stage for a sharp expansion of Japanese exports and a resurgence in the nation's trade surplus, analysts say.
Sales of new mobile phone subscriptions soared in Finland last year, giving the country the world's highest percentage of mobile phone users.``Finns may not have a reputation of being great talkers, but they like all the new gadgets,'' Transport Ministry spokesman Harri Pursiainen said Wednesday.
The owners of J.C. Penney and Coffee Group of Costa Mesa, Calif., are teaming to develop coffee bars in 60 Western stores in the next year, calling them JC Java. Coffee Group hopes to eventually franchise the snack bars, offering coffee, teas, Italian sodas and sandwiches, in 800 of J.C. Penney's 1,200 stores.