August 20, 1999

Walt Disney Plans to Sell Fairchild to Conde Nast Walt Disney said it would sell its Fairchild Publishing division, which publishes Women's Wear Daily and W, for $650 million to Conde Nast Publications, the high-profile, glossy publisher of magazines like Vogue, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker.

Nation's largest Lutheran denomination, 5.2 million Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, votes to enter an agreement for full communion with Episcopal Church, under which two churches, which together represent nearly eight million Americans, would fully recognize each others members and sacraments, exchange clergy when needed and join in missionary and social service projects; Lutheran Church vote reverses decision made two years ago, in which elected Churchwide Assembly narrowly rejected similar agreement with 2.4 million Episcopalians; link that is approved in Denver is likened more to a marriage than a merger, because both churches retain their creeds and structures, and is a boost for an ecumenical movement among Protestants that had been waning in recent years (M)

Alcoa Inc reaches definitive merger agreement with Reynolds Metals Co, in relatively swift negotiations that leave some Reynolds shareholders grumbling; in all-stock deal, Reynolds' shareholders will receive 1.06 shares of Alcoa for each Reynolds share; deal is valued at around $4.4 billion; Reynolds leaves open the door for another buyer to come along, as both companies agree to allow Reynolds to solicit takeover bids for next 30 days; Richard Grubman, managing director at Highlands Capital Management, firm that owns 6 percent of Reynolds, is angered by rejection last March by Reynolds chief executive Jeremiah J Sheehan of 1.42-to-1 share exchange offer from Alcoa; at the time Sheehan was telling shareholders that no one was interested in acquiring Reynolds; graph (M)

Bank of New York, in effort to expand lucrative business in Eastern Europe over last several years, aggressively pursued relationships with Russia's largest banks, strategy that might have led to embarrassing questions about money laundering now being posed by Federal investigators; bank specialized in setting up cash and securities accounts for Russian banks in United States, highly competitive market that it dominated; accounts, which were managed by one senior officer, Natasha Gurfinkel Kagalovsky, who now has been suspended, allowed Russian institutions to transfer money out of Russia easily; at first, working with Russian banks seemed like a fruitful new business, but now several of those banks have collapsed, and billions of dollars hat passed through Bank of New York are being examined by Federal investigators, who suspect money laundering operation by Russian organized crime; investigators say it could have been one of largest money laundering operations ever uncovered in United States, with $4.2 billion passing through one account alone from last October through March (M)

Walt Disney Co decides to sell its Fairchild Publications division, which publishes Women's Wear Daily and W, for $650 million to Conde Nast Publications, glossy, high-profile publisher of magazines like Vogue, Vanity Fair, Mademoiselle and The New Yorker; deal would merge two of fashion world's most powerful publishing entities and their distinct publishing styles: frills-free but provocative style of Fairchild with no-expenses-spared ethos of Conde Nast; sale is seen certain to alter advertising landscape that preoccupies magazine publishers; photos (M)