June 27, 2000

Philip Morris Companies and Carl C Icahn are early winners in Philip Morris's $14.9 billion acquisition of Nabisco Group Holdings; Philip Morris shareholders see price of their stock rise nearly $4; Icahn, who bought stake in Nabisco earlier in year, sees his investment grow to $980 million, netting him and his investors about $600 million; Nabisco will be sold to Philip Morris for $14.9 billion, or $55 a share; once deal is complete, R J Reynolds will buy Nabisco Group Holdings, whose only asset is 80.6 percent of Nabisco Holdings, for $30 a share, or about $9.8 billion; holding company will retain $1.5 billion in cash; Philip Morris chairman-chief executive Geoffrey C Bible says he will not spin off all of Kraft Foods, which will be giant among food makers once acquisition of Nabisco is complete; photo (M)

Veteran NYC Police Officer Donna Gaudino is suspended for failing to assist teenager who told her he had been sexually abused in Greenwich Village after annual Gay and Lesbian Pride March; suspension comes as Police Department's Internal Affairs Bureau is completing its probe into reports that officers had failed to help women who said they were attacked in Central Park (M)

Pres Clinton raises projection of federal budget surplus by nearly $1.3 trillion for next decade; says how surpluses are used in current period of prosperity will determine America's future for decades to come; new estimate puts up for political grabs amount two and a half times greater than projected by White House less than five months ago; is latest result of strong economy that is rewriting budget outlook on almost continuous basis by recasting projections for years to come; brings total surplus projection to slightly less than $4.2 trillion for 2001 through 2010; Clinton proposes deal to divide part of windfall with Republican majority in Congress; says he will agree with Republican proposal to cut taxes for married couples by roughly $250 billion over 10 years if Republicans go along with $253 billion plan to add prescription drug coverage to Medicare; stresses he will put government on path to eliminate $3.5 trillion national debt by 2012, year ahead of previous schedule, and to use part of non-Social Security surplus to help extend solvency of Medicare; photos; charts (M)

Putting the genome to work. Some information has already paid research dividends. Two research methods, two results. From Mendel to helix to genome. More articles, charts and photos of the genome effort. Section F.

Microsoft Corp was taken aback this month by reports that linked Investigative Group International, firm Microsoft used to help it track down pirates and counterfeiters of company's software, to mysterious efforts to obtain trash of pro-Microsoft trade association in Washington, presumbably looking for documents that would embarrass company as it fought antitrust case; Microsoft officials say they had had no idea that firm was effectively playing both sides of the street in working for and against Microsoft; Microsoft spokesman Vivek Varma says it is bizarre and inappropriate that Investigative Group would accept Microsoft anti-piracy assignment while getting paid to attack company with cash-for-trash tactics; Investigative Group chairman Terry Lenzer says he cannot remember whether Microsoft was a client; Microsoft says its involvement with Lenzer's company begain in March, when Microsoft's law firm, Preston Gates & Ellis, retained company's Los Angeles olffice to help hunt down pirates and counterfeiters (M)