Business digest

By Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 8, 2000

NEXTEL RISES ON REPORT: Nextel Communications Inc. shares rose 5.9 percent after the Wall Street Journal said AT&T Wireless Group is considering a combination with the rival wireless telephone provider. Nextel rose $2.94 to $53. Spokesmen for both companies declined to comment on the article. AT&T Wireless fell 63 cents to $25 on the New York Stock Exchange. They've fallen 21 percent since their initial public sale in April. The Journal reported that AT&T Wireless, the mobile-phone business of long-distance provider AT&T Corp., could merge with Nextel as a way to boost its lagging share price.

KMART, WAL-MART ADOPT GAME POLICY: Kmart said it will refuse the sale of mature-rated games to anyone under 17, using a bar code scanner that will prompt cashiers to ask for identification from young people. After Kmart's news conference in Washington, Wal-Mart announced it would adopt the same policy. Kmart executives said they believe their policy lets parents make decisions about video games. Kmart plans to enact the policy Oct. 15, in time for the holiday shopping season. A Wal-Mart spokeswoman said she was not sure when Wal-Mart would implement the new policy.

INSURANCE DEAL: Brown & Brown Inc. has acquired Robertson Insurance Services Inc. for an undisclosed price. Robertson is the holding company for the majority partnership interest in Robertson/Welch Insurance Services LLP, an insurance agency based in Macungie, Pa. The deal completes a transaction that began with the Junepurchase of Bowers, Schumann & Welch, which held the other partnership interest in Robertson/Welch. Brown & Brown is a general insurer with dual headquarters in Daytona Beach and Tampa.

BANK TO DEBUT AD CAMPAIGN: Bank of America Corp. is spending $100-million during the next 12 months to promote its brand through television, radio and print advertisements, its most expensive ad campaign ever. The bank will kick off the campaign during the opening ceremonies of the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Bank of America, with branches in 21 states, said for the first time it would also run television and print ads in U.S. cities where it doesn't have any branches, such as New York and Boston. Bank of America is the largest bank operating in Florida.

ST. JOE BUYS TAMPA OFFICE BUILDING: St. Joe Commercial, the commercial real estate division of Jacksonville-based St. Joe Co., has bought Palm Court, a 62,000-square-foot office building in Tampa's Hidden River Corporate Park. The seller was SPP Investment Management of Greenwich, Conn. Financial terms were not disclosed. The 11-year-old building is fully leased, with such tenants as Bausch & Lomb, Lucent Technologies and Fidelity Mortgage. The purchase is St. Joe Commercial's fifth in the Tampa Bay area in the past eight months.

TIME WARNER TO BUY AFRICANA.COM: Time Warner Inc. said it bought closely held Africana.com, a Web site devoted to the culture and history Africa, to attract more black customers to merger partner America Online. Terms of the purchase weren't disclosed. After America Online completes its purchase of Time Warner, the media company will combine Africana.com into America Online. Africana.com was founded last year by Harvard University professors Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Kwame Anthony Appiah to attract blacks to the Web and help close a gap between those with Internet access and those without. The site now has more than 500,000 monthly visitors and about 50,000 people use its free electronic-mail service, Time Warner said.

MINORITIES' BUYING POWER GROWS: Buying power among blacks, Asian Americans and American Indians has skyrocketed in the past decade, a University of Georgia study shows. Disposable income for the three groups is projected to rise from about $440-billion in 1990 to $860-billion in 2001, an increase of more than 95 percent. The study, an analysis of Census Bureau data and government economic statistics, looked at the amount of spending money available after taxes. Overall buying power in the United States has increased by 70 percent over the same period. Statistics among whites were not available. Buying power for Hispanics -- which the study considered separately from the other groups -- was projected to more than double to more than $452-billion.

PRICELINE TO OFFER WIRELESS, INSURANCE: Priceline.com Inc. said it will add a wireless-telephone service and term life insurance to build sales. The products will become available in the next three to six months, Priceline.com said. The Internet bidding service company also plans to seek sales to businesses by offering office equipment, furniture, supplies and insurance, chief executive Daniel Schulman said.

HEALTHPLAN IN TALKS FOR UNIT SALE: HealthPlan Services Corp. of Tampa said it is in preliminary discussions to sell its benefit plan administration business to Zenith Administrators Inc., a subsidiary of Washington-based ULLICO Inc. Philip Dingle, HPS' president, said no contract has been signed, nor has a sale price been made public. The HPS units being sold are American Benefit Plan Administrators and Southern Nevada Administrators. HPS completed the sale of its unemployment compensation and workers' compensation units to the Sheakley Group of Companies in Cincinnati in July.

TAMPA TELECOM COMPANY MAKES DEAL: SATX Inc., a Tampa-based telecommunications company that designs and manufactures prepaid cellular phones and wireless tracking devices, said it has signed a letter of intent to buy Wethersfield, Conn.-based Shared Technologies Cellular Inc. and merge the companies. SATX said High Street Partners International Venture Fund Ltd. has agreed to fund $25-million of $100-million in cash involved in the deal. Shared Technologies Cellular provides cellular phone rentals, prepaid cellular service and national activation services through arrangements with carriers around the country.

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