March 5, 2003

Connecticut University women's basketball team defeats West Virginia University, 78-58; photo (M)

Alessandra Stanley comments on Fox reality shows, including Married by America, and ABC's reality-show entry The Family; photos (M)

Payments from food manufacturers to food service companies have been long-accepted practice in industry; use of such payments, known as promotional allowances, has become more aggressive in recent years, as food industry has consolidated and become more competitive; practice has come under intense scrutiny after disclosure last week by Royal Ahold that it overstated earnings by $500 million for last two years as result of accounting problems connected to payments made by American unit US Foodservice; Justice Department has issued subpoenas for variety of US Foodservice documents, including financial statements, audits and minutes of board meetings dating to January 1999, further back than period of earnings restatement; photo (M)

Biotechnology companies are being acquired for their cash rather than for their technology; 22 percent of industry's publicly traded biotechnology companies have market values lower than their cash levels, making it tempting for others to acquire them; Dendreon last week said it would pay $73 million in stock for Corvas International, which had $90.5 million in cash at end of December; Britain's Cambridge Antibody Technology and Celltech are bidding against each other for Oxford GlycoSciences, with both companies offering less than Oxford's cash; such deals are starting to raise some shareholder concern; chart (Market Place column) (M)

World Business Briefing: B