[ Business World...]

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Sep 28, 1999

U.S. loses its Huffy niche

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- Huffy will stop making bicycles in the United States, closing its two U.S. plants by year's end. Huffy cited a decline in prices for Chinese-made bicycles over the past six months for the closures announced Monday. It planned to continue making bicycles with partners around the world. There are a total of 600 jobs at the two plants -- 440 at Farmington, Mo., and 160 at Southhaven, Miss. The company's announcement did not disclose whether any jobs would be transferred.

Good point

NEW YORK (NYT) -- All of you people already wondering what to get your significant others for Christmas should think hard about this.

A guy bought his wife a beautiful diamond ring for Christmas. A friend of his said, "I thought she wanted one of those sporty four- wheel drive vehicles."

"She did," he replied. "But where in the heck was I gonna find a fake Jeep?"

The non-MP3 Walkman

TOKYO (AP) -- Sony will start selling a Walkman that fits into the palm of a hand and downloads music from the Internet while protecting copyrights. The "Memory Stick Walkman" is designed to fight the proliferation of illegal music exchanges on the Internet and to create a new standard for portable audio players, a Sony spokesman said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Walkman will cost $430 and requires a computer with Microsoft Windows 98 to transfer music to Memory Stick storage cards the size of a stick of gum. The Walkman uses technology to protect the record industry from the illegal copying and distribution of music over the Internet. Currently, music can be downloaded from the Internet for free.

Memory Stick users would pay for Internet music made compatible with Sony's encryption system, but would not be able to download songs from free Web sites, the spokesman said. He did not explain what form the payments would take. Companies like IBM, Sony, Microsoft and scores of record companies have been banding together to develop ways to protect the music industry from the growing popularity of MP3, a technology that gives near-CD quality to music downloaded from the Internet.

Diving into an angel fund

NEW YORK (NYT) -- It seems a leap across the chasm of investing. A man once called the king of can't-beat-the-market index funds becomes a partner in a so-called angel fund, which specializes in picking Internet start-ups worthy of seed investments.

But Fred Grauer, who headed the $575 billion Barclays Global Investors funds until last year, contends that the two worlds of investing are not so different. He notes that Barclays Global Investors has 140 separate funds in its portfolio. "Each one of those was essentially a seed-level investment," said Grauer, 52. "So I do have a lot of experience in working with innovative businesses and getting them off the ground."

Grauer officially started Monday as a general partner in Angel Investors. And Angel Investors itself is a vivid illustration of both the changes that the Internet gold rush has brought to Silicon Valley and the things that remain the same. For years, an angel investment meant the modest grubstake that a new business required just to open its doors -- money that often came from family and friends. The professional financing came later, from venture capitalists, who would act as mentors to fledgling companies. Yet with the huge money flows being directed at Internet start-ups, Angel Investors represents an effort to make seed-stage investing far more professional. Its first fund, which closed earlier this year, is $30 million. Its second fund, scheduled to close on Friday, is expected to raise $75 million.