Business World

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Mar 11, 1998

The deal with New York-based Wind-up Entertainment creates a 50- 50 joint venture dubbed American Bandstand Music, which will release a series of reissues and compilations beginning in September. The compact discs will include audio and video footage from American Bandstand shows that can be played on personal computers equipped with CD-ROM players.

"We spent two years talking with Dick Clark about this before he finally felt completely comfortable about it," said Wind-up Chairman Alan Meltzer, an industry veteran whose start-up label has released a platinum record (1 million copies) by Creed and seen its release by Dr. John receive a Grammy nomination. Clark said in a statement that he selected Wind-up for the venture partly because it is a boutique-type operation. "In this situation, we're a priority," he said. "We won't get lost in the shuffle." No specific titles have been selected yet but Meltzer said a wide range of candidates were under consideration including offbeat categories such as protest songs of the late 1960s. The venture also will seek marketing partners for custom-designed projects. Texas vs. tobacco DALLAS (AP) -- Lavish expense accounts for the private attorneys who helped Texas fight Big Tobacco have become another sticking point in the state's record $15.3 billion settlement. The flap concerns expenses, estimated at $40 million, to be paid to attorneys in addition to their fee of about $2.3 billion. Nearly two weeks ago, Gov. George W. Bush requested that records of hourly fees and expenses for the five private attorneys that worked for the state be delivered to his office by late Monday. Ron Dusek, a spokesman for Attorney General Dan Morales, said the report would be delivered this week. He said the requested information would have to come from the private attorneys themselves. "The private attorneys told the tobacco industry that their estimated expenses are $40 million. Now the private attorneys have to justify that $40 million," he said. By comparison, the state's own attorneys have received $5 million in estimated expenses. And, in Florida, private attorneys who helped settle that state's case received $12 million in expenses. All of the money floating around for expenses needs to be looked at closer, said Bush's spokeswoman Karen Hughes. "The expenses in the Texas case are much, much higher than in Florida and in Florida the case lasted much longer," she said. U.S. District Judge David Folsom of Texarkana, who approved the settlement and the fees, will hear all challenges in the case. He has scheduled a March 19 hearing on all motions. An improved breed of human WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ask Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking to describe the 21st century and he will say it sure does not look like a Star Trek episode, "where people are essentially the same 400 years in the future." Instead, expect to find genetically engineered humans. "It is likely to happen in the next millennium whether we want it or not," Hawking said during a lecture night in the East Room of the White House. Hawking said the combination of advanced science and technology will inevitably bring together incredible changes -- including better people. "Unless we have a totalitarian world order, someone will design an improved human somewhere," he said, clarifying that he wasn't passing judgment on such changes. Hawking, 56, has Lou Gehrig's Disease, which affects the motor skills, and he speaks by touching a computer screen that translates his words through an electronic synthesizer. He is the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, a post once held by Sir Isaac Newton. Film costs soar LAS VEGAS (Bloomberg) -- The cost of producing and marketing a Hollywood studio film surged 27 percent to $75.6 million last year as major stars and directors demanded bigger salaries, an industry group said Tuesday. Production costs of the average film released by the studios rose 34 percent to $53.4 million last year from $39.8 million in 1996, said the Motion Picture Association of America. Marketing costs rose 12 percent to $22.2 million. The soaring cost of making and marketing movies, which has put increasing pressure on studios' profits, have been a subject of growing concern in Hollywood and on Wall Street. The latest figures show costs are rising even faster than in the past as successful actors and directors received a bigger cut. `'Bankable talent is now running the business," said Jack Valenti, chief executive of the Motion Picture Association. While studios are facing increasing competition for consumers' time and money from alternative forms of entertainment such as the Internet and cable-TV, that hasn't hampered theater admissions. Admissions rose to 1.38 billion last year, up 3.7 percent. Valenti said that figure should rise 12 percent to 1.6 billion over the next 10 years. Total box-office revenue rose to a record $6.36 billion, up 7.7 percent. Foreign markets represent about 52 percent of worldwide box office gross for the seven major Hollywood studios. Internationally, admissions rose 13 percent in major Latin American countries, 6 percent in the European Union and 2 percent in Asia. Getting into tickets NEW YORK (Bloomberg) -- USA Networks will buy Ticketmaster Group for about $400 million, or $29.70 a share, in stock, after boosting its bid 17 percent because of a rise in ticketing company's share price. In October, Chairman Barry Diller offered about $340 million, or $25.30, in an unsolicited bid for the half of Ticketmaster that USA Networks doesn't own. Diller wants to use Ticketmaster, the nation's largest seller of tickets to events such as concerts, as the centerpiece of his expansion into online shopping. USA Networks owns the Home Shopping Network. Since USA Networks's first offer, Ticketmaster shares have gained about 18 percent because of the company's prospects for growth online and overseas. USA Networks, which was then known as HSN, bought almost half of Ticketmaster last July from its chairman, Paul Allen, for $235.8 million. Allen is the co-founder of Microsoft with Bill Gates. New York-based USA Networks includes the Home Shopping Network, the USA Network and Sci-Fi cable channels and a string of local television stations that Diller wants to turn into a loosely based network. Boosting WordPerfect OREM, Utah (AP) -- Corel is slashing prices by up to half for upgrades of its WordPerfect line of software products in an attempt to boost sagging sales. The once-leading software has been overwhelmed by rival Microsoft's word-processing and office programs. Corel bought the WordPerfect business from Novell three years ago Starting Saturday, Corel will sell the latest upgrade of WordPerfect Suite 8 and WordPerfect Suite 8 Professional for $89 and $179, respectively, down from $179 and $249. Both products package word-processing, spreadsheet and presentations software in addition to other programs. The prices are less than half what Microsoft charges for upgrade versions of its market-leading Office 97 products. Corel hopes to return to profitability this year after reporting a $67 million loss in its latest financial quarter amid plunging software sales. But analysts expressed skepticism that Corel will be able to offset the negative impact of dramatic price cuts. Merging departments BOULDER, Colo. (AP) -- The Daily Camera of Boulder and the Rocky Mountain News of Denver have merged circulation, advertising and information services departments in Boulder County. The newspapers, owned by E.W. Scripps Co., have formed Scripps Media Access as part of a plan on "how the Boulder newspaper can help the Rocky Mountain News dominate the metro Denver market while streamlining costs." The Rocky Mountain News is in a newspaper war with The Denver Post, which is owned by MediaNews. Scripps Media Access will combine carrier routes in Boulder County. The Daily Camera's publisher, Harold Higgins, said nearly all carriers are expected to join the new company. Boulder County advertising for the Rocky Mountain News will be handled by The Daily Camera staff. National advertising will be directed through the Rocky Mountain News staff. The information services departments, which handles the newspapers' computers, also will be combined. E.W. Scripps Co. acquired The Daily Camera in August from Knight Ridder.