November 6, 2003

Japanese toymaker Bandai Co says net profit slipped 4.9 percent, to 6.7 billion yen ($61 million) in six months ended Sept 30 (S)

Surrounded by exuberant girls, including her own 8-year-old, a Wisconsin resident named Jean Carter seemed positively thrilled as she paid $650, more than twice what she had planned, at American Girl Place here. To start, she had bought two of the store's $90 dolls, each representing a character from a different era in American history, and then novels about each doll's character. Then came high tea, the musical theater show and finally some of the endless stream of tie-in merchandise that has made American Girl a huge marketing success as well as a cultural phenomenon.

Japanese cosmetics maker Shiseido Co says profit in first six months fell 33.6 percent; earned 6.6 billion yen ($61 million) in half-year as sales fell 0.3 percent (S)

Of all the Beatles recordings, none has a history as fraught as ''Let It Be,'' and on Nov. 18 Capitol Records will add another wrinkle to the story, with the release of ''Let It Be . . . Naked.'' One thing listening to the new album makes clear is that it won't end the debate -- a perennial among Beatles fans since the original ''Let It Be'' album was released in 1970 -- about how the album was meant to sound. There is, it turns out, both good news and bad. In purely sonic terms, ''Let It Be . . . Naked'' is a real treat. Remixed from the original multitrack session tapes, these performances have a warmth and fullness that makes the sound on the original album seem flat and squashed. The most notable difference, and the one that occasioned the remix in the first place, is that the lush choirs and orchestrations that Phil Spector larded onto the songs ''Let It Be,'' ''The Long and Winding Road'' and ''Across the Universe'' have been shorn away, leaving the unadorned performances that the band originally meant to release.

Cisco Says Strong Results Offer Proof of Recovery Cisco Systems, the Internet equipment maker, reported quarterly earnings and revenue growth that exceeded Wall Street's expectations. Executives said the results offered more evidence of a recovery. ''We are continuing to see signs that could be interpreted with the appropriate caveats as optimistic,'' said John Chambers, its chief executive. Cisco reported net income of 15 cents a share for its first fiscal quarter, compared with 8 cents in the period a year ago. Sales rose to $5.1 billion from $4.8 billion. [Page C4.]