September 8, 1995

The Chrysler Corporation took a small step today toward appeasing Kirk Kerkorian, its largest shareholder, by doubling a previously announced stock repurchase program, to $2 billion. The move demonstrated how sharply positions have shifted in the wrestling match for control of the company, and how secure a lock Mr. Kerkorian has placed on Chrysler with one swift move: hiring Jerome B. York, a former chief financial officer at Chrysler and most recently at I.B.M.

The State Chamber of Commerce has awarded the Legislature a B-plus grade for its record on business-related bills, the organization announced yesterday. Twenty-one of the 120 legislators, all but 2 of them Republicans, voted with the chamber 100 percent of the time in the session that began in January of last year, said James F. Leonard, a lobbyist for the chamber.

Orange County Supervisors Said to Share in Blame The Board of Supervisors of Orange County, Calif., contributed to the county's financial disaster, a report prepared by Kroll Associates, a private consulting firm, and the Orange County grand jury said. The losses that led to the county's bankruptcy "can be linked to a badly flawed investment strategy" of Robert L. Citron, the county's former treasurer, the report said. But "the foundations of this financial disaster were clearly built on ineffective management of, and oversight controls over, treasury operations," it contended. [ Page D2. ] I.B.M. Shakes Up Software Unit I.B.M. shook up its software division, naming a marketing executive from Compaq and appointing a new manager to oversee OS/2, its computer operating software. [ D2. ] Fight for Stomach-Medicine Market Drug companies are waging a $200 million-plus marketing battle as they carve out shares of what could become a multibillion-dollar market for nonprescription stomach remedies with over-the-counter versions of the prescription drugs Tagamet, Pepcid and Zantac battling popular antacids. [ A1. ] Canadian Insurers to Merge Manufacturers Life Insurance and North American Life Assurance have agreed to a merger that will create Canada's largest life insurer with assets of $35.15 billion. [ D3. ] Productivity Rises 4.8% Worker productivity rose 4.8 percent, its best quarterly performance in nine years. [ D2. ] Intel in Supercomputer Deal Intel said it had won a $45 million contract from the Department of Energy to develop the world's fastest supercomputer, using 9,000 of its forthcoming P6 chips. [ D2. ] Motorola to Build in Virginia Motorola said it would buy 230 acres of land west of Richmond as the site for a $3 billion manufacturing plant for its Power PC microprocessors. Production should reduce the perennial chip shortages that Apple Computer has said have hindered it. [ D2. ] Changes at Times Mirror Times Mirror changed its management structure, announcing the departure of three senior executives and essentially eliminating a layer of management. Nine executives, including the chief financial officer, the head of human resources and the publisher of The Los Angeles Times, will report directly to Mark H. Willes, the chief executive. [ D4. ] Kennedy Introduces George John F. Kennedy Jr. and his partner introduced their magazine, George. Fat and glossy, looking like a healthy Vanity Fair with an astonishing 175 pages of ads in the first issue, it is a blend of substance and fluff with dashes of irreverence and wit. George is published by Hachette Filipacchi Magazines, which put about $20 million into its startup. [ D4. ] Partnership Strategy for Insurer Western National, an issuer of annuities sold through banks, cannot point to rising sales or even much earnings growth. But the company hopes its strategy of partnership with banks will distinguish it. Market Place. [ D6. ] New Campaign for Grand Marnier In ads now beginning to appear in almost 40 publications, the new importer and marketer of Grand Marnier present abstract images meant to inspire philosophical musings. Stuart Elliott: Advertising. [ D4. ] What Future for Chase Art? The planned merger of Chemical Bank and Chase Manhattan has given rise to worry in the art world. What will happen to the Chase Art Program, a collection of 13,000 valuable works begun when David Rockefeller led the bank? Bankers are not yet ready to say. [ C23. ]

Harvey Mackay, businessman, author and motivational speaker, is a one-man band of self-promotion. At $50,000 a pop, he gives 50 or so speeches a year, raking in $2.5 million. His speeches help sell his books and vice versa -- he's a walking, talking version of the success principles he lists in "Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive." At the moment, Mr. Mackay is swimming in a very profitable tide. Even in this day of electronic connections, the old-fashioned business of business speaking is booming. The number of business and trade conferences is growing, more people are becoming speakers, and fees are rising. While few industrywide numbers are available, most speakers bureaus -- companies that provide speakers to banquets, conferences and other corporate events -- report revenue growth of around 20 percent a year.

TODAY we identify the American realist painter Edward Hopper with both New York City and rural New England. Hopper lived in Greenwich Village at 3 Washington Square North and painted lonely urban scenes, and he spent many of his summers on Cape Cod, painting solitary vistas of the surrounding land and seascapes. Yet Hopper's roots reach back to the old Dutch settlements that punctuate the wooded bluffs and promontories along the lower Hudson River. His birthplace, Nyack, still offers the visitor a valuable view back to the artist's boyhood, when local and traditional values faced new horizons opened by developments in technology and science.