Business World

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Nov 14, 1997

With its steeple visible through the Atlantic mist for miles, Mont Saint Michel is a well-known French landmark that draws hordes of tourists every year. The tiny cobblestone-street village winding up to the abbey is filled with shops, restaurants and hotels. Prime Minister Lionel Jospin approved the plans to open up dikes and dredge the sand that has washed up around the island off the Normandy coast.

Much of the marsh is now overgrown with grass. The project also will move visitor parking to the mainland, eliminating congestion on the narrow road leading to the site. Shuttle buses will replace the parking, which will be reserved for residents only. Trouble with Dilbert? ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- Think Dilbert is a funny comic strip? A harmless diversion to be tacked to your cubicle wall? Author Norman Solomon doesn't. He argues that the bumpy-headed guy with the flyaway tie is anti-worker, a capitalist shill, a fraud and a corrosive societal force that portrays the cubicled masses as inefficient goof- offs. Solomon's paperback, The Trouble With Dilbert, due out Monday, takes aim at Dilbert, Dogbert, co-worker Wally, the pointy-haired boss, and even strip creator Scott Adams. Far from seeing Dilbert as a hapless corporate everyman, Solomon contends he is no less than "a tiny bolt on humongous corporate machinery." Solomon's argument runs like this: * Dilbert pokes fun at ordinary workers and middle management, as if it's totally their fault workplaces are inefficient. * In an era of job cuts and corporate abuses, Dilbert lets upper management off the hook. * Adams is sympathetic to corporate downsizing tactics and is cynically making scads of money by licensing his creations to anyone. "Instead of being a weapon against mind-numbing corporate blather, Dilbert is a tool for propagating more of it," according to the book. Adams brushed off Solomon's attack. "I'm totally in favor of demagoguery because that's how I'm making my own living," he said. "So I can't criticize him for doing exactly what I'm doing." OU biz school draws praise NORMAN (JR) -- This week's Business Week magazine lists the Michael F. Price College of Business at the University of Oklahoma among the most prestigious schools of business in the nation. An article highlighting "experiential programs" features OU as one of five schools, including the Wharton School of Business, on the cutting-edge of instruction for business majors. Citing both the Integrated Business Core (IBC) program and the Student Managed Investment Fund (SMIF) through which undergraduate students manage a $100,000 investment fund, Business Week noted that although these types of courses are unusual, they have caught the attention of many businesses that recruit college graduates. "These courses and others like them are part of a trend that's bringing the real world into undergraduate business programs. By managing actual businesses, community service projects, or investment portfolios, students in these `experiential courses' glean lessons they can't acquire in a classroom alone." Through the IBC program, students create real companies in an entrepreneurial-type environment utilizing management, marketing, business communication and law courses. Profits are donated to a local charity chosen by the student team. The recent article is just one of several indicators that OU's Price College of Business is really moving up in national reputation. U.S. News & World Report ranks OU in the top quartile of all U.S. colleges for both its MBA program and its undergraduate business program. The Price College of Business is the only Oklahoma business school to receive a three-star rating from Peterson's Guide to MBA Programs. New coins roll on WASHINGTON (AP) -- The dollar's going gold and the quarter's getting a face lift under legislation passed by the House Thursday and sent to President Clinton. The bill, passed by voice vote, authorizes the treasury secretary to create a gold-colored dollar to replace the Susan B. Anthony dollar as well as new quarters honoring the 50 states. Beginning in 1999, Treasury will issue five new quarters a year, each commemorating a state. The states will be honored in the order they entered the union. 20,000 keystrokes an hour TULSA (JR) -- Viking Software Services introduced Version 4.0 of the Viking Data Entry System for Windows Thursday. The software features all the features found in Viking's traditional DOS, UNIX and VMS products. "Some customers report sustained keying speeds upwards of 20,000 keystrokes per hour, with even faster bursts," said President John R. Haley. Texans buy theaters DALLAS (NYT) -- United Artists Theater Group, the nation's second- largest cinema operator and a descendant of a company founded by silent-movie greats Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, has been sold to a Texas investment firm in a deal that reflects the industry's rapid consolidation. Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst, which specializes in buying other companies and has amassed holdings ranging from television stations to landmark hotels like New York's Algonquin and La Posada de Santa Fe, purchased United Artists' parent company Oscar I for $300 million. Hicks, Muse -- which is based in Dallas -- also assumed $550 million of the company's debt. The deal is the third in the past three months involving a major movie theater company. Sony agreed in September to merge its Loews Theaters unit with Cineplex Odeon, which will create a 2,600-screen operator and push United Artists to No. 3. And Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, a New York-based investment firm that, like Hicks, Muse, specializes in buying other companies, last month agreed to buy the 733-screen Act III Cinemas in a deal valued at $660 million. Kirkpatrick puts up a mill OKLAHOMA CITY (JR) -- Local businessman and philanthropist John E. Kirkpatrick has found a way to kick nonprofit fund-raising into high gear. He's offering as dollar-for-dollar match, expected to equal more than $1 million, to 104 nonprofit organizations in their fund- raising and endowment efforts. This offer creates an opportunity for each organization to increase its endowment at the Oklahoma City Community Foundation by $20,000. The year-long matching offer also is expected to spur donors into increasing their holiday contributions. One for Tinker WICHITA (AP) -- The U.S. Air Force awarded Boeing a $64.8 million contract to manufacture kits for new, quieter engines for KC-135 and RC-135 aircraft. The contract is with the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center at Tinker Air Force Base, Boeing announced Tuesday. The contract calls for Boeing to provide fabrication and assembly of re-engine kits for four RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft and four KC-135 air refueling tanker aircraft. The kits include fabrication of new engine struts and nacelles, structural fittings, wiring harnesses and hardware necessary to replace the existing aircraft engines with quieter, more fuel-efficient engines. All of the work will be performed at Boeing Product Support facilities in Wichita. The contract will not require additional employees. Premier may lose out OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- An agreement for Premier Parks, the company that owns Frontier City and White Water Bay in Oklahoma City, to become a managing general partner of Six Flags Over Texas may be in jeopardy because of a higher bid from the amusement park's current managers. Premier Parks officials in October agreed to take over management of the Arlington, Texas, landmark and offered to buy it for $315 million. But their company has since been outbid by Six Flags Theme Parks, a management company that is part of Time Warner Entertainment and Boston Ventures Group. "Six Flags is currently negotiating the definitive agreements with its current partners for another 30 years, and we expect that those agreements will be completed by the end of next week," said Ira Belsky, an attorney for Six Flags Theme Parks. Premier Parks amended its offer for an undisclosed amount earlier this month, but Six Flags Theme Parks countered with an even higher offer, reportedly about $350 million, The Daily Oklahoman reported. Chevy gets ASB WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) -- Chevy Chase Bank completed Thursday its purchase of a NationsBank money-management unit, ASB Capital Management, for an undisclosed amount. Washington-based ASB manages about $3.5 billion in debt, stock and real estate for institutional clients and wealthy individuals. NationsBank, which purchased ASB from Maryland National about three years ago, agreed to sell the unit in June. Chevy Chase Bank, a closely held company with more than $6.6 billion in assets, is the largest bank based in the Washington metropolitan area. Charlotte, N.C.-based NationsBank, the fifth-largest U.S. bank, manages about $115 billion in assets for institutional and individual investors.