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If you've been meaning to send your local business editor a thank-you note do it this week, because s/he spent last week losing sleep over your net worth. Let's take a break from the markets, though, and see what else Sunday's business sections featured.
Next time a company whose stock you own wants you to approve a merger, beware. The Chicago Tribune hired a consulting firm to study merged companies and found most of them trailing their peers. In many cases the merger was a flat-out mistake. Let's hope someone at Walt Disney Co. reads the Trib because Disney is considering a "giant acquisition," says The Orlando Sentinel -- and many of the reasons why are wrongheaded by the Trib's standards.
Didn't someone once say that content wants to be free? Not anymore. Internet freebies are drying up as companies shun brand-building for profitability, The Washington Post says. About time, too, adds The San Jose Mercury News' Dan Gillmor.
Americans have more food choices than ever. Unfortunately, so do other organisms. While the U.S. food supply remains the safest in the world, contaminations and poisonings are as common as they were 50 years ago, says The New York Times (free registration required). Two culprits: Imports, plus our growing taste for fresh produce.
BLACK MALE MARTHA STEWART. For decades, Daewoo was South Korea's pride and joy. Now the conglomerate is bankrupt and seeking a foreign buyer, and Koreans are grappling with the economic fallout, says The San Jose Mercury News. For a broader view of Asia's prospects, The Los Angeles Times looks at how Japan's prolonged restructuring will affect the whole world.
Insurance companies talk about relationships, but some former Allstate agents are suing in what amounts to an ugly divorce. Their complaint accuses Allstate of violating prior agreements by turning employed agents into independent contractors, and selling policies without involving agents, according to The St. Petersburg Times. Sales reps at drugmaker Pfizer, meanwhile, say it has bought their loyalty by letting some of them work part-time without losing any benefits, according to The Florida Times-Union.
U.S. cities are in the midst of a convention center building boom, says The Denver Post. The story questions the timing, since convention attendance appears to be declining. Still, the story concludes that unlike dumb cities that only think they have the right formula, Denver actually does.
Most of us don't know much about him, but Tom Joyner has been called the black male Martha Stewart. The Dallas-based radio host appears on 110 ABC stations, and, like Martha, he's becoming his own multimedia brand, says The Dallas Morning News. Unlike Martha, he focuses on African-American families. But, like Martha, that means his target audience is largely women, who head most black families.
NET SALES TAX DILEMMA. It's a tale of two steel plants: The Cleveland Plain Dealer, continuing its coverage of steelmaker LTV's restructuring plans, looks at two plants separated by the Cuyahoga River, a 1912 facility that makes steel used for pipes, and another that makes sheet steel used in auto exteriors. It's an easy guess which the company wants to unload.
Advocates of online shopping fear that introducing a sales tax could damage a hurting sector. However, it's hard to ignore traditional retailers' pleas that they're being unjustly punished by a tax-free 'Net. The Boston Globe says the debate is approaching a crescendo, as a moratorium on online sales taxes expires in a few months.
The big industry in Rochester, Minn., is saving lives, and administrators of the famed Mayor Clinic tell The St. Paul Pioneer Press that could become harder if a big new railroad project is approved. Sending dozens of huge trains through town daily may be good for the local economy, but what happens if there's a toxic spill, they say, or if a patient dies while waiting at a railroad crossing? (Ever hear of an overpass)?
Too much product! That's The Seattle Times' analysis of the microbrew business. Staying small is no way to make big money, so microbreweries have expanded ambitiously -- pushing themselves into unwinnable competition with national brewers.
How many condos are too many? That's the question Milwaukee developers are asking as several new downtown projects take shape nearly simultaneously. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel doubts that they'll all make money.
Finally this week: It may be time to consider what The Philadelphia Inquirer's Jeff Brown calls the "sleep at night" portfolio. You already know what it is: boring. But when your future is at stake, maybe boring is best.
Copyright 2001 , by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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