BusinessWeek: April 10, 2000

Get Four
Free Issues

Subscribe to BW
Customer Service

 In Business This Week: Headliner

Patricia Fili-Krushel: From Mouse Mogul to Web Whiz

  Related Items
Patricia Fili-Krushel: From Mouse Mogul to Web Whiz

Tiger, Tiger, Shutting Tight?

What's Thrilling Excite@Home

Web Patents: Now for a Closer Look

Can Dimon Turn Bank One Around?

A Bull Makes Bear Noises

Et Cetera...

Frozen Asset

CHART: Ben and Jerry's Stock Price


Wouldn't you know it: Just as Walt Disney turned its long-ailing ABC network around, one of the top architects of the revival takes off. ABC President Patricia Fili-Krushel is leaving after seven years to head the consumer products unit of Internet health-care site Healtheon/WebMD. Fili-Krushel is credited with the daytime talk show The View and was one of several players behind Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, which has leapfrogged ABC from third place to first in the past year.

At first glance, Fili-Krushel seems an odd choice for a Net startup. But her area of expertise--building popular recognition of media properties--is just what Healtheon/WebMD needs right now. The company has a growing but little-known roster of disparate holdings, including the Health Network cable-TV channel and weekly programs on the Fox News and Fox Sports stations. Fili-Krushel may be just the talent to make them household names.

By Ron Grover in Los Angeles, with Charles Haddad in Atlanta; Edited by Anne Newman

Return to top



Tiger, Tiger, Shutting Tight?

It's the end of the line for Julian Robertson's beleaguered Tiger Management. So say investors and sources close to the once-successful hedge-fund group, which has been plagued by poor performance in recent years. A Tiger spokesman did not return calls seeking comment on reports Tiger is closing, with its assets liquidated or transferred to other hedge funds. The funds fell 19% in 1999 and another 10.5% through Mar. 28, and Tiger managers were told at yearend that the firm may close in eight months (BW, Mar. 13). Tiger's assets have shrunk from $22.5 billion in August, 1998, to $6 billion in recent weeks, because of poor performance and investor withdrawals. Tiger gained 4% in March--but that, apparently, wasn't enough.

Edited by Anne Newman

Return to top



What's Thrilling Excite@Home

Excite@Home stock tumbled from a high of $99 last year to $28 on Mar. 20, largely because of uncertainties over whether the company's three big cable partners would let it keep selling broadband Internet access over their cable TV networks. On Mar. 29, much of that uncertainty was removed when AT&T, Cox, and Comcast all extended their agreements with Excite@Home through at least 2006. Says Excite@Home CEO George Bell: "We're all going to be together a long time." The deals will allow the company to sell its $40 a month broadband connections to the Net to 59 million people. AT&T will take control of Excite's board, while Cox and Comcast relinquish their seats. The news sent Excite@Home's stock up to $37.69, 35% above its low.

Edited by Anne Newman

Return to top



Web Patents: Now for a Closer Look

The U.S. Patent & Trademark office has come under fire for issuing broad patents for such Web innovations as Amazon.com's "one-click" ordering process. Now, it's responding. In a Mar. 29 speech in San Francisco, patent commissioner Q. Todd Dickinson announced an overhaul of the office's methods of examining applications and awarding patents. The biggest problem: The patent office often does not have enough info about previous Web innovations and so may grant patents for claims that aren't new. So it's beefing up efforts to uncover this so-called "prior art," as well as putting in checks to reduce the chance that bad patents will be awarded.

Edited by Anne Newman

Return to top
  MARKET INFO
DJIA 0 0.00
S&P 500 0 0.00
Nasdaq 0 0.00

Portfolio Service Update

Stock Lookup

Enter name or ticker






Can Dimon Turn Bank One Around?

It's time for Jamie Dimon to get his hands dirty. As the new head of Bank One, the 44-year-old former Citigroup president has the daunting task of turning around a $265 billion asset institution that's proven wildly unpopular with both customers and investors.

The bank stumbled last year as its credit-card unit drove clients away with high fees. Critics say that integrating its warring units may prove impossible. But even they concede that if anyone can do it, Dimon can. He earned wide respect as Travelers Group president. Says Dimon: "There's no question that there are benefits from consolidation and economies of scale in all businesses."

Edited by Anne Newman

Return to top



A Bull Makes Bear Noises

Is Abby Joseph Cohen getting market heebie-jeebies? Cohen, chief market strategist at Goldman Sachs and a big bull market proponent, advised clients on Mar. 28 to cut their stock allocation to 65% from 70% and put 5% of their portfolios in cash, up from zero. The technology sector, in particular, "is no longer undervalued," says Cohen, advising clients to invest in technology through other sectors that are increasingly using high tech to boost profits.

Edited by Anne Newman

Return to top



Et Cetera...

-- Xerox is expected to cut up to 5,000 workers and take a charge of up to $700 million.

-- BellSouth filed an IPO to sell $1 billion in stock in a unit serving Latin America.

-- eMachines' initial offering flopped, as shares sank from 9 to 7.

Edited by Anne Newman

Return to top



Frozen Asset

Ben & Jerry's Homemade investors may have seen their holdings melt for the last time. On Mar. 29, the Vermont ice cream company's Class A shares rose nearly 15% on news the company may go private. A deal between co-founder Ben Cohen, Unilever, and Meadowbrook Lane Capital would value it at $38 a share, or $260 million. Cohen's 36% stake may keep it socially conscious. Still, investors weren't convinced the deal would stick, and the stock closed at $34 3/8.

Edited by Anne Newman

Return to top





Return to top
 




Copyright 2000-2012 Bloomberg L.P.
Terms of Use | Privacy Notice