January 11, 1999

Washington Redskins and their new Jack Kent Cooke Stadium are sold to group headed by Howard Milstein, co-owner of New York Islanders hockey team, for $800 million, record price for domestic sports franchise; sum to be paid to estate of late Jack Kent Cooke, former owner of team, by Milstein and his partner Daniel Snyder, exceeds $530 million paid by Al Lerner for expansion Cleveland Browns; Milstein is expected to sell his stake in New York Islanders to team's co-owner Steven Gluckstern (M)

Critic's Notebook by James Oestreich on Jeffrey Siegel and Ruth Laredo, pianists and commentators who participated in Keyboard Conversations at 92d Street Y, playing and discussing works by Beethoven; photo (M)

Pharmaceutical sales force in US has exploded since failed efforts to overhaul nation's health care system in 1995; has grown from about 35,000 full-time sales representatives and supervisors in top 40 pharmaceutical companies in 1994 to more than 56,000 in 1998; companies spent estimated $5.3 billion in first 11 months of 1998 sending representatives to doctors offices and hospitals and additional $1 billion holding marketing events for physicians; national spending for prescription drugs has more than doubled in last decade, to $78.9 billion in 1997 from $37.7 billion in in 1990; New England Journal of Medicine reports percentage of personal health care dollar spent on prescription drugs is growing faster than any other part, including doctor and hospital bills, partly because prescription drug costs have risen on average 17 percent annually in last few years; photo; graphs; chart (M)

Amazon.com, Internet bookseller which has yet to report profitable quarter since going public in May 1997, saw its share price soar by nearly 50 percent in first trading week of new year; stock price has climbed about 150 percent since beginning of December; Amazon.com now has market value of $25.4 billion; some analysts say unrestrained enthusiasm despite company's lack of profit may reflect investors' appreciation for Amazon.com's sales momentum and value of its dominant position as leading electronic bookseller; it comes as many investors seem to find shares of variety of Internet companies irresistible; some Internet bears see more greed than logic in meteoric rise of Amazon.com (M)

The National Football League's Washington Redskins and their stadium were purchased yesterday by a group headed by Howard Milstein, a co-owner of the National Hockey League's New York Islanders, for a record price involving an American sports franchise, according to two people involved in the sale. The purchase price reflects the cash flow generated by the Redskins' Jack Kent Cooke Stadium. The $800 million, to be paid to the estate of Jack Kent Cooke by Mr. Milstein and the Washington-based communications executive Daniel Snyder, far exceeds the previous record, $530 million paid for the expansion Cleveland Browns last August. SportsMonday, page D1.