November 25, 1993

Companies Many legal obstacles that Paramount had hoped would stop QVC's hostile takeover bid were swept away by a Delaware court. The ruling was a blow to Viacom, which had agreed to a friendly merger with Paramount. [ Page A1. ] The ruling could help shareholders by forcing companies to sell to the highest bidder. [ D6. ]

President Clinton met today with Salman Rushdie in a gesture that the White House said was intended to convey America's abhorrence of Iran's refusal to lift the death threat against the novelist. Mr. Rushdie also conferred at length with Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Anthony Lake, the national security adviser. Their hourlong conversation, in an office at the White House, represented a sharp shift from the Bush Administration's refusal to meet with Mr. Rushdie on the ground that it "might be misinterpreted" in the Muslim world. Message Against 'Intolerance' Mr. Rushdie, 46, has lived in almost perpetual hiding since Feb. 14, 1989, when his novel "The Satanic Verses" was condemned as blasphemous by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran, who called for his death. President Hashemi Rafsanjani of Iran said this year that since the Ayatollah had died, the death sentence could not be lifted.

In a showdown pitting the struggling airline industry against a cash-starved city, the nation's major airlines asked the Clinton Administration today to prevent Los Angeles officials from banning their aircraft from the city's international airport. Airport officials said on Tuesday that they would ban the major airlines beginning Dec. 4 because they refused to pay landing fees that the airport tripled last July. But the airlines, which only this year began making money again after three years of record losses, say the higher fees are unfair. Rights of Airports It was not immediately clear what would happen after Dec. 4 if the airlines refused to pay the fees. Robert Buckhorn, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said that his agency directed air traffic in and out of airports and that no airport coulddeny a plane permission to land.

Never mind that holly boughs, tinsel and blinking lights have festooned store windows and shopping malls since Halloween. Tomorrow, the annual holiday shopping season officially begins, the most profitable time of year for retailers. But there is little consensus about just how strong sales will be this year. In the past, estimates of holiday sales have tended to converge as Thanksgiving approached. What started out as very different predictions in September following back-to-school sales usually ended up as very similar estimates as Christmas drew nearer and a herd mentality seized the financial community.

A Delaware Chancery Court yesterday swept away many of the obstacles that Paramount Communications had put in place to stop QVC Network Inc. in its hostile takeover of the giant entertainment company. The ruling, which was highly critical of the Paramount board, was a blow to Viacom Inc., which had agreed to a friendly merger with Paramount.