Merger

Directors of the Farm Credit Bank of Baltimore will meet today to consider a merger with a sister institution in Columbia, S.C., that could lead to the creation of a new cooperative banking system extending from Pennsylvania to Florida.The possibility of a consolidation with the Farm Credit Bank of Columbia "is on the agenda for discussion at tomorrow's meeting," Jack Curry, a spokesman for the Sparks-based bank said yesterday.The bank, which is Maryland's largest agricultural lender, did not offer any hint as to how its seven-member board would vote on the issue.

State lawmakers concerned about protecting consumers should be supporting, rather than impeding, the proposed merger of Constellation Energy Group with Florida's FPL Group. Faced with significant electricity rate increases this year, legislators worked with local utilities to fashion a phase-in plan that provides lower initial rate increases for customers of Baltimore Gas and Electric, Pepco and Delmarva Power. Though that solution wasn't perfect, it provides a fair amount of relief and time to Maryland's consumers, who have had to deal with substantial price increases in recent years, including from housing, property taxes, health care, groceries and gasoline.

CHICAGO -- Merger talks between Lucent Technologies Inc. and French telecom firm Alcatel SA probably are a prelude to several deals among telecom equipment firms, industry observers said yesterday. Faced with the pending merger of AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp., vendors may seek mergers to counterbalance the growing market power of their largest customers. "If customers consolidate, equipment suppliers will consolidate," said Krish A. Prabhu, chief executive of phone equipment supplier Tellabs Inc. "This is going to happen."

Seeking to shore up strength amid the declining fortunes of organized labor, the governing board of the United Rubber Workers union has approved a proposal to merge with the United Steelworkers of America.The merger agreement, reached late Thursday after several months of talks, is to be voted on by the board of the Steelworkers' union Monday. It would then be subject to a vote at a convention of United Rubber Workers members, a meeting expected within two months.If the agreement clears those hurdles, the merger will significantly increase the membership of the Steelworkers' union, which since the mid-1970s has been in fairly steady decline.

Carroll's Economic Development Commission agreed yesterday to recommend that the county offices of tourism and economic development be combined, despite concerns that a merger might eventually harm efforts to attract business to the area.The proposed merger -- suggested by economic development administrator William E. Jenne and Joan Meekins, program administrator for the Office of Tourism -- must be approved by the commissioners."It's an economies-of-scale issue," Mr. Jenne said. "We both have limited staff resources, and both are involved in marketing and promoting Carroll County."

The Morgan Stanley Group said yesterday that it was negotiating to buy S. G. Warburg & Co., the largest investment bank in Britain.The combined company would be the world's largest money manager for institutions and the seventh-largest money manager over all. The combination would rival Goldman, Sachs & Co. as the world's leading adviser for mergers and challenge Merrill Lynch as the biggest global underwriter of stocks.The deal is driven mainly by Warburg's desire to transform itself into a global investment banking powerhouse, a goal it has been denied so far because of its limited access to the U.S. market.

IN the wake of the Exxon/Mobil merger, we've seen a small flurry of articles arguing that acquisitions generally don't make sense, except for the shareholders of the company that's being acquired.And in the wake of the New England Patriots' move to Hartford, Conn., where the state plans to build them a $350-million stadium, we've seen a wave of articles arguing that sports teams are not sources of economic development and that such deals are corporate welfare of the worst sort.Necessary repetitionBoth sets of stories are, of course, unquestionably accurate.

Ask a local telephone company about the recently announced,$12.6 billion AT&T-McCaw Cellular merger and the biggest bad word you'll hear is "bypass."Owning McCaw, AT&T could connect its cellular customers directly to the long-distance lines, bypassing the wired network of a local phone company altogether for calls across the nation.This is technically easier, less noise-prone and more efficient than the present setup. Today, a cellular phone user calling a mobile phone in another state connects to the phone network through local phone company circuits, which switch the call to a long-distance carrier -- typically AT&T, which has 60 percent of the business, MCI or Sprint -- which reaches a local carrier on the other end, which switches the call to the receiving cellular phone.

Norfolk Southern Corp. and Conrail Inc. are negotiating a merger that would form a 26,400-mile railroad blanketing the Eastern half of the country.A merger would combine the predominantly north-south Norfolk Southern with the east-west Conrail, resulting in a network stretching from Chicago to Boston and from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico.In recent years, the port of Baltimore has competed intensely with the Norfolk, Va., port, which is served by Norfolk Southern. Rail service in Baltimore is provided by Conrail and CSX. It was not clear yesterday what impact the merger would have on Baltimore.

WASHINGTON -- Lockheed Corp. expects to take a $200 million pretax charge for cost-cutting moves should its merger with Martin Marietta Corp. fail to go through, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday.At the same time, Calabasas, Calif.-based Lockheed said it expects its merger with Bethesda-based Martin to be completed in the first quarter of 1995.According to Lockheed's 10-Q filing, the charge would cover costs associated with cutbacks in light of shrinking post-Cold War military spending.