Honolulu Star-Bulletin Local News
Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Monday, August 19, 1996

AT&T's president resigns

NEW YORK - The man some analysts expected to be the next leader of AT&T Corp., Alex J. Mandl, will leave the largest long-distance telephone company to join a small but ambitious wireless communications firm.

Mandl's departure triggered a sell-off in the shares of the telecommunications giant, while it sparked a jump in the stock of Associated Group Inc., parent company of his new employer.

At closing on Wall Street, AT&T was $1.37-1/2 lower at $54.12-1/2 on the New York Stock Exchange, and Associated Group's class A shares rose $4.75, or 18.6 percent, to end the day at $30.25 on the Nasdaq market.

Mandl, 52, will become chairman and chief executive of Associated Communications, a new unit of the Associated Group, a Pittsburgh-based company with investments in several Mexican wireless companies. The new subsidiary will develop high-capacity wireless networks in U.S. cities, Associated Group said.

AT&T said today it would immediately begin looking for a replacement to Mandl, who last October was named AT&T's president and chief operating officer.

Some analysts believed Mandl was the top prospect to replace Chairman Robert Allen, 61, when he retires in 2000.

Before joining AT&T in 1991, Mandl was chairman and chief executive of Sea-Land Services Inc.


Fed widely expected to stand pat on rates

WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve will consider whether an interest-rate rise is needed to head off potential inflationary pressures, but the central bank is widely expected to remain on hold.

The central bank's policy-making Federal Open Market Committee meets tomorrow amid mixed signals about how vigorous the economy remains after a second quarter surge.

Most economists believe enough question marks exist to prevent the Fed from acting now, though some see a possible precautionary rise later this year to slow the economy.

The Fed last moved in January, shaving a 1/4 point off the fed funds and discount rates.


AOL buys into maker of retrieval software

DULLES, Va. - America Online Inc. said it bought a minority stake in Personal Library Software Inc., a maker of software used to retrieve information, Bloomberg Business News reported. The size of the stake and other terms of the purchase weren't disclosed.

America Online, the No. 1 online service, already uses Personal Library's technology to let subscribers look up information from the New York Times, AOL's directory of subscribers and some 600 other sources.

America Online said it will help distribute Personal Library's products.

Japanese companies invest more overseas

TOKYO - Japanese companies are boosting investment abroad despite the weakened yen and fears the domestic economy will "hollow out" as a result, a survey shows.

Companies surveyed by the financial daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun said they would boost investment overseas by 11.6 percent in the year to March 1997, exceeding a planned 8.9 percent rise in domestic spending.

Southeast Asia and China topped the list of sites for planned investment.


For more local, national and international business news,
see the Hawaii Inc. section in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.



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