August 8, 1995

NBC to Pay $1.27 Billion To Broadcast Olympics NBC short-circuited the traditional bidding process for the Olympics by agreeing to pay $1.27 billion for the television rights to the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, and the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. NBC executed a triple gambit: It shut out the Fox Network, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, from acquiring the Summer Olympics in Mr. Murdoch's native land; prevented Walt Disney from making a quick splash in sports TV, and ended CBS's run with the Winter Olympics. [ Page A1. ] Bankers Say Public Offering Is Possible for Donaldson Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities is considering an initial public offering, investment bankers said. It could raise as much as $400 million. [ D2. ] Archer Dismisses Informer for U.S. Archer-Daniels-Midland dismissed Mark E. Whitacre, the senior executive who was an undercover informer in a Government investigation of possible price collusion, accusing him of stealing $2.5 million. [ D6. ] Consumer Credit Up in June The Fed said consumer credit grew by $9.6 billion in June, the 25th straight month it has risen, but the rate of increase slowed. [ D15. ] Insurers Seek Credit Line Bankers in New York are near completion of two credit agreements totaling $2.5 billion that would help insurers pay claims after a big storm. The credit would not be enough to cover possible losses from the worst storms. [ D7. ] I.B.M.-Toshiba Venture Expected I.B.M. and Toshiba are expected to announce plans today to invest more than $1 billion in a semiconductor plant in Virginia, people familiar with the announcement said. [ D6. ] First Bank to Buy Firstier First Bank System, based in Minneapolis, said it had agreed to buy Firstier Financial, based in Omaha, for about $700 million in stock, or about $38 a share -- less than yesterday's opening price. Firstier closed at $37 a share, down $2. First Bank is offering 0.8829 of a share for each Firstier share. [ D8. ] Broadway Stores' Shares Fall Shares in the Broadway Stores lost nearly half their value, falling $1.375, to $1.625, amid speculation that the Los Angeles-based department store company might have to sell assets or seek bankruptcy protection. [ D18. ] Truce in Battle for Mesa David Batchelder declared an truce in his battle to take control of Mesa Inc., proposing a new set of directors but backing away from his plan to unseat the current ones. [ D5. ] Oil Demand Estimates Rise The International Energy Agency raised its projections for global oil demand by 100,000 barrels for both this year and next. [ D5. ] Cellular Spinoff Unlikely Analysts and investment bankers are delighted at the possibility that Nynex and Bell Atlantic may spin off their merged cellular-phone operations. But the companies are more likely to sell a piece of the venture. Market Place. [ D8. ] Bantam Names New Division Bantam Doubleday Dell said its newest publishing division would be called Broadway Books and that it had acquired the rights to more than a dozen books, including two by Bernice King, the youngest daughter of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. [ D7. ] Discord at Fund for Russia The merger of two investment funds that pump American money into Russian ventures has spurred intense public discontent from the fund chief passed over for chairman. [ D4. ]

A driver ran a red light at a busy downtown intersection during the lunch hour yesterday, setting in motion a chain reaction that left at least six people injured. The police charged that Idena Brown's 1986 Buick collided with another car, ran down three pedestrians who were trying to cross the street and then struck the rear end of a third auto that, in turn, collided head-on with yet another car.

EVER since they were discovered more than 30 years ago, quasars have been a stunning enigma. Shining like faraway beacons, they are the most luminous objects in the universe, each one emitting energies hundreds of times greater than all the combined stars in the Milky Way galaxy. They are also among the most distant known objects, meaning that they provide glimpses of the early universe and must harbor clues to those primordial conditions. Most astronomers suspect that quasars are fundamentally related to the formation of early galaxies, the origin of which is one of the great unsolved problems of astrophysics. And quasars are presumably powered by another mysterious phenomenon, black holes, those extremely dense regions at the center of many galaxies where gravity is so strong that light cannot escape.

Wilson's Turnabout Gov. Pete Wilson of California, a leader in the fight against affirmative-action plans, was once a passionate supporter of them. Page A10. G.M. to Split Off Unit Eleven years after buying Electronic Data Systems from H. Ross Perot, General Motors decided to split off the growing computer unit. Page D1. France Leads in Arms Sales France surpassed the United States as the leading arms dealer to third-world countries last year, a Federal study reported. A3.

At 86, Aurora Gareiss cannot squish her feet through the marsh mud the way she used to. Her eyes have trouble spotting the muskrats in the tall grass and the mussels on the shore. And even with her hearing aid, she is unable to hear the night songs of the toads. But on a recent sticky-sweet summer afternoon, Mrs. Gareiss giggled like a girl when her friend, Virginia Dent, 73, took her arm and helped her the 50 yards or so along wooden planks from her house in Douglaston, Queens, to the rim of Udalls Cove.