Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Friday, August 22, 1997

Ad 2 offers to run free
campaign for nonprofit

Ad 2 Honolulu wants to conduct a free marketing campaign for a nonprofit organization.

The Honolulu advertising and public relations company is accepting applications and intends to pick the organization by the end of September. The application deadline is Sept. 12.

Missing Child Center Hawaii was picked last year, and Ad 2 provided more than $200,000 worth of work, including the creation of an ad campaign, to that nonprofit, the company said. For an application, call 539-8090.

Intel's stock tumbles
on analyst's downgrade

NEW YORK -- The stock of computer-chip giant Intel Corp. slid today after an influential Wall Street investment firm lowered the stock's rating.

Tom Kurlak, an analyst with Merrill Lynch & Co., lowered Intel to "neutral" from "buy." The reasons were not disclosed.

Separately, Morgan Stanley & Co. analyst Mark Edelstone started coverage of Intel with an outperform rating, which means he expects the stock to perform better than the overall market.

Shares of Intel dropped $2.25, or 2.3 percent, to close at $96.121/2 on the Nasdaq market.

Man hit for racist remark
wins workers comp case

SALEM, Ore. -- A white man who got punched out by a black coworker for making racist remarks is entitled to workers compensation for his injuries, the state Supreme Court ruled.

The court found unanimously yesterday that the injury was work-related even if events leading up to the assault was were not about work. Along with physical risks in a workplace, Justice Theodore Kulongoski wrote, is "the risk that a co-employee may lose con

trol of his or her emotions and assault the employee."

Jerald P. Keene, a lawyer for the employer of the men, said the ruling essentially rewarded the man for using racist epithets, calling it "a pretty surprising message to come out of the Supreme Court."

The incident occurred more than three years ago at the Redman Industries Inc. plant in Salem, which makes manufactured homes.

DuPont to pay $1.5 billion
for Ralston Purina unit

ST. LOUIS -- DuPont Co. said it agreed to buy Ralston Purina Co.'s soy unit for $1.5 billion in stock and assumed debt as the largest U.S. chemical company raised its bet on its future in agribusiness.

The acquisition of Ralston Purina's Protein Technologies International unit, a maker of soy protein and fiber food ingredients with $450 million in annual sales, comes on the heels of DuPont's Aug. 7 announcement of a $1.7 billion investment in Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., a supplier of seeds and genetically engineered agricultural products, according to Bloomberg News.

The Ralston Purina unit, based in St. Louis, employs 1,200 people and has sales in 75 countries. It is the world's biggest maker of soy protein and fiber food ingredients. It also makes Supro soy proteins, which are used in infant formulas, processed meat, poultry and seafood products.