June 25, 1998

Saks Fifth Avenue, one of New York's oldest and most esteemed names in retailing, is on selling block; majority owner Investcorp International, Bahrain-based investment bank, has richly profited from investing in other luxury retailers like Tiffany and Gucci and selling them; company has been seeking similar way to profit from Saks; Saks could be priced at between $2 billion and $2.5 billion (M)

William C Rhoden Sports of The Times column on New York Jets releasing quarterback Neil O'Donnell and signing Vinny Testaverde; contends that when Jets signed O'Donnell for $25 million, everyone except Jets, knew that organization had made costly blunder; Jets Coach Bill Parcells photo (M)

Millions of AT&T Corp shareholders will receive so-called tracking stock as part of merger between AT&T and Tele-Communications Inc; tracking stock is a security typically issued by large conglomerate with interests in wide variety of businesses; because security is designed to track narrow segment of company's far-flung operations, issuing it is good way for a company to put discrete market value on those operations alone; in most cases, ownership of tracking shares does not represent direct ownership of business's underlying assets, as common stock ownership does; underlying assets are still owned by issuing company, but in tracking stock the issuing company agrees to parcel out economics of business, as it were, giving its shareholders stake in entire operation while its tracking stockholders can concentrate their bet; chart shows breakdowns of AT&T's and Tele-Communications' various operations; photo (M)

Interview with Caroline Knapp, author of Pack of Two: The Intricate Bond Between People and Dogs, which describes close relationship she has developed with her dog; photos (M)

Article evaluates Windows 98 software as being a minimal renovation of Windows 95 that patches some holes but leaves many problems unsolved; recommends upgrading to the new program only if it offers some especially needed feature; photos (M)