Business World

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Jun 1, 1999

Call it a new twist on the globalization of U.S. culture. Instead of making the product in America and exporting it around the world, Disney decided to take the idea and create a show here first -- in German, with a German partner. "Working in a foreign language -- that's been a big stretch, and we've had to figure out along the way how to do that," says Thomas Schumacher, head of Disney's animation and theatrical productions divisions.

"That and the fact that it's far away... makes it more complicated." But a combination of factors supported the decision to "break the mold" and present an original production in Berlin, he says. First, there was Disney's full plate of productions in the United States, plus the lure of a brand-new, custom-built theater, and the "appropriateness" of presenting a classic European story about racism and tolerance in the former Nazi capital at the same time the German government is making its historic return to the city. "We wouldn't have been able in this time frame to do it in the States," Schumacher said in a recent interview during rehearsals. "So it seemed a good idea to be able to do it here and see what we had. ... It seems like a good fit." And, he adds, "from a purely business perspective it's important to have the work out there around the world." Priced out of the mailbox NEW YORK (NYT) -- Ever wondered how the banks that inundate Americans with credit card offers can afford all those come-on letters and tempting introductory rates? Perhaps some of them can't. The mailbox of the future may still groan under the weight of credit card solicitations, but they will come from a smaller number of banks, Moody's Investors Service says. Just as big airlines can drive new carriers out of business by temporarily lowering prices, bigger lenders can do the same to smaller banks by temporarily lowering the price of borrowing money, and that is what they are doing with credit cards. "Cutthroat competition between issuers remains the rule," said David Fanger of Moody's, the credit rating agency, "while the prevalence of teaser rates continues to encourage consumers to surf" for new cards. All of that shaves profit margins and gives an advantage to the big lenders that can afford to stay longer in the game. The cost of just signing up a new customer now ranges from $90 to $110, double the cost six years ago, mostly because of the expense of mass mailing, according to The Nilson Report, a credit card industry newsletter in Oxnard, Calif. That may decline as issuers turn to the Internet: "Acquiring a new customer over the Internet may be only half as expensive," said David Robertson, the president of Nilson. But smaller issuers who cannot match the low-rate offers from big lenders may not be in the game long enough to realize the Internet savings. Reversing a Roth WASHINGTON (NYT) -- If you rolled your retirement savings into a Roth IRA last year, and then realized that you were not eligible, you have until Oct. 15 to undo your mistake, the Internal Revenue Service says, acknowledging that it made a mistake when it told people the deadline to fix such errors was April 15. Rollovers to Roths were allowed only for taxpayers whose adjusted gross income was less than $100,000. Those who made more, and married taxpayers who filed separately, were ineligible. If you improperly converted to a Roth, you have until Oct. 15 to have your investment house undo the deal and until April 15, 2002, to file an amended tax return, said Don Roberts, an IRS spokesman. Failure to undo an improper Roth conversion makes all income taxes due immediately and, if you are under 59 1/2, you must pay a 10 percent penalty. The week that was HOLLYWOOD (AP) -- Here are some entertainment highlights during the week of May 30-June 5: 60 years ago: Deanna Durbin signed a five-year contract with Universal at an annual salary of $195,000. 35 years ago: The Rolling Stones made their U.S. television debut on The Les Crane Show. The show was followed by a nine-date tour that opened in San Bernadino, Calif. 30 years ago: The Plastic Ono Band recorded Give Peace a Chance at a hotel in Canada. 25 years ago: Patti Smith recorded her version of Hey Joe, her first recorded work. 15 years ago: Sergio Leone's film, Once Upon a Time in America, starred Robert DeNiro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Treat Williams and Tuesday Weld. 10 years ago: Robin Williams starred in Dead Poets Society. One year ago: Singer Geri Halliwell, better known as Ginger Spice, quit the Spice Girls. Home for contemporary art NORTH ADAMS, Mass. (NYT) -- Thirteen years in the making, MASS MoCA, a campus for contemporary art in North Adams, is set to open Sunday. MASS MoCA, which calls itself the largest center for contemporary visual and performing arts in the United States, plans to focus on artists charting new territory, works that blur the line between visual and performing arts, and works that have seldom been seen because of their size or material. The 13-acre site includes 27 disused factory buildings, though so far only six have been renovated. Dating from the 19th century, the complex once belonged to the O. Arnold and Co. print works and later to Sprague Electric. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the red-brick structures are joined by bridges, viaducts and elevated walkways to form an elaborate system of interlocking courtyards, an architectural vision in itself. They occupy nearly a third of North Adams' downtown business district. Transformed, the buildings are now home to 19 galleries with more than 100,000 square feet of exhibition space, including one as long as a football field; a 650-seat theater; an outdoor cinema with a 50- foot-wide screen; two performance courtyards; an art workshop, and fabrication facilities, including areas that allow visitors to watch artists create. Hanoi Hilton, Hilton Hanoi HANOI, Vietnam (NYT) -- The Hilton Hanoi Opera hotel has opened, a few blocks from Hoa Lo, the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" where American prisoners were held during the Vietnam War. (The few remaining cells of that prison have been preserved as a museum.) The seven-story classical facade of the new hotel resembles its more immediate neighbor, the newly restored 1911 French colonial Hanoi Opera House. The neighborhood is within walking distance of the city's central business district. Guest rooms, furnished with lacquered cabinets and Vietnamese art, have individually controlled air-conditioning, data ports and television with international channels. There's a fitness center, whirlpool, sauna and massage, and the outdoor pool has its own bar. Dining choices include a cafe, a bar, a brasserie with French specialties and a Cantonese restaurant. The hotel has 269 rooms and suites. A special promotional rate of $111 for a double (you must book at least three days in advance) is good through Sept. 15; the standard rate is $155. Tax of 15 percent is extra. Welcome touch of stereo SANTA CLARA, Calif. (NYT) -- As the market for MP3 music files, sophisticated games and DVD movies grows, a computer's subwoofer capacity is becoming almost as essential as chip speed. Future Power, a new computer company based in Santa Clara, has developed a stereo amplifier and digital graphic equalizer that makes home computers sound more like stereos and less like, well, home computers. The device, called the New Q Gold, is about the size of a CD-ROM drive and slips into a computer's open bay. It is made to work with any sound card and increase a PCs audio output by up to 40 percent, said Priscilla Lin, the company's marketing manager. The New Q Gold, which will go on sale in July, will cost $79. It is also one of the features included in Future Power's new line of low-cost computers. Sold under the series names Signature and Power, for business use, and Advantage and Adventure, primarily for home use, the new computers will start at $699 (without monitor). Fox wins family battle NEW YORK (AP) -- Fox Broadcasting has reached an agreement with its affiliates under which the network will take back 20 commercial spots each week that the stations had been allowed to sell themselves. The affiliates had protested the network's original plan, revealed in early April, to cut the amount of 30-second spots that each local station can sell every week from 90 to 70. Under a slightly revised plan, the network promised not to take back any spots during prime time or National Football League games. The move will mean less revenues for the 200 Fox-affiliated TV stations around the nation and more for the network. The amount of money involved is hard to judge since ad rates vary widely from program to program, but published reports have estimated that Fox could gain as much as $200 million in revenues each year by the moves. Fox's plan, which caused controversy in the broadcasting community, reflects increasing pressure on networks to meet the rising costs of buying hot prime-time shows like ER and premium sports programming like NFL games. Really chatting NEW YORK (NYT) -- People who use instant typed messages to "chat" online can now do so literally, by talking to each other through their computers. Yahoo Pager, a system that enables people to type messages back and forth in real time, has started a free service called Voice Chat that allows up to 10 people to speak to one another using microphones wired through their computers. Of course, there is an older technology called the telephone that already permits conversations at a distance. But according to Brian Park, the senior producer for Yahoo Pager, Voice Chat offers advantages that the phone does not: free conference calls and savings on long-distance calls. He acknowledged that Net instability may cause breaks in some conversations. Even so, teen-agers are flocking to the service at pager.yahoo.com, Park said, partly because it enables them to talk to one another on line while still communicating via typed messages. Particularly talkative teens may have a problem with one limit built into the service, however: to keep conversations chatty, the service allows a person to talk for only about one minute at a time. Photo war heats up ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) -- A photographic film price war between Eastman Kodak and Japanese nemesis Fuji is flaring up as the peak summer season nears, and Kodak appears to be losing ground on its home turf once more. Kodak insists, however, that its seemingly sharp drop in market share in April is no more than a blip in its effort to rebound from a 1997 assault by Fuji Photo Film that led to the elimination of 19,900 Kodak jobs. In the U.S. market, two retail surveys show that Tokyo-based Fuji grabbed 5 percentage points in unit sales at Kodak's expense during the first four months of 1999. Most of the gains came in April. But even with the decline, Kodak still accounts for about two-thirds of the rolls of film sold in this country. In a business made highly volatile by coupon discounts and other promotions, Kodak said a few weeks or even months are too brief a period to accurately reflect its market standing. Also, the supermarket, drugstore and mass-merchant data, tracked by ACNielsen and Information Resources, do not include manufacturers' sales and provide only a partial view of the photo industry. Any Fuji inroads would be worrisome, however, at a time when Kodak seemed to be rebounding from two hard years of price battles. Some Wall Street analysts think Kodak will have to lower film prices to make up ground.