November 4, 2000

Viacom in $2.3 Billion Deal For Black Entertainment TV As expected, Viacom said it would acquire BET Holdings, the company that owns Black Entertainment Television, the nation's largest black-owned cable channel, for $2.34 billion in stock and the assumption of about $570 million in BET debt. Robert L. Johnson, the founder of BET, would become a major shareholder of Viacom and retain his titles of chairman and chief executive. [Page C2.]

Many apple farmers acknowledge their own role in collapse of one of last sectors of American agriculture still dominated by family farms; say that in trying to create perfect Red Delicious apple for major supermarket chains, they may have sacrificed taste to cosmetics; Pres Clinton recently signed biggest bailout in history of apple industry, after government reported that apple growers lost $760 million in last three years; growers say they established color, size and firmmess standards in response to major supermarket chains, who want consistent product that catches eye of harried shopper; say result is rosy red apple that lacks taste of old Red Delicious; most orchards continue to produce these perfect apples, at huge losses; other apple farmers have started growing new varieties like Fujis, Galas and Granny Smiths; farmers and apple trade associations say government bailout will not solve underlying problems of industry; three biggest apple-producing states are Washington, Michigan and New York; photos (L)

European Central Bank intervenes in global currency markets again to prop up euro; move is different and riskier than intervention six weeks ago because European bank acts without support from US or other major central banks; bank emphasizes its fear that weak euro is aggravating inflation by increasing cost of imports from outside zone of 11 nations where euro is common currency; euro closes at 86.68 cents, up from 86.01; graph (M)

New York City's schools chancellor, Harold O Levy, has been bold on changing school bureaucracy, but he purposely treads lightly on instruction; that stratgegy sets him apart from his recent predecessors, all career educators who rolled out major education initiatives soon after arriving on job; Levy, who is not trained educator, is depending on Judith A Rizzo, deputy chancellor for instruction, to fine-tune programs started by his predecessor, Rudy Crew; they include intensive literacy programs, summer programs and extra support for students held back, and plan to move thousands of special education students into regular classes; meanwhile, Levy is drawing on his experience as corporate lawyer and watchdog by focusing almost exclusively on reducing bureaucracy at Board of Education headquarters; he has already eliminated hundreds of arcane regulations, sped up disciplinary process for teachers and created program to recruit novice teachers and grant them alternative form of certification; photo (M)

Chrysler Group decides to use units of Omnicom Group to handle its worldwide creative and media accounts, with billings estimated at $1.8 billion; Omnicom and True North Communications have divided those assignments; lost assignments account for about $140 million, or 9 percent, of True North's total revenue, and as much as 15 percent of its total earnings (M)