Business Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

NATIONAL
CBS FINED $550,000 BY FCC FOR INDECENCY AT SUPER BOWL
Viacom Inc.’s CBS television unit was fined a record $550,000 by the Federal Communications Commission for airing indecent material during the Super Bowl halftime show, when singer Janet Jackson’s breast was exposed.
The fine is the biggest ever imposed on television stations for indecency, though it falls short of the $1.75 million levied by the FCC in June against Clear Channel Communications Inc., the largest American radio network. CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves has said he will fight the decision in court.
“The Viacom organization knew, or surely should have known, what was to come,” FCC Chairman Michael Powell said in a prepared statement. “Unquestionably, Viacom consciously took the risk and, thus, now bears the responsibility.”
The Jackson incident spurred both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to pass bills that raise maximum fines for broadcast indecency to as much as $500,000 per violation from the current $27,500. The differences in the bills are due to be addressed by congressional leaders later this year.
The incident came in a duet at the February 1 Super Bowl halftime show, produced by Viacom’s cable network MTV and watched by 90 million viewers. Singer Justin Timberlake reached across Jackson’s leather outfit and pulled away a chest covering, exposing her breast. It prompted a record half-million complaints to the FCC.
CBS told the FCC it had no advance notice of the singers’ stunt, and that they did not perform it in rehearsals monitored by the network. The company apologized for the incident and instituted a five-minute audio and video delay at the Grammy Awards a week after the Super Bowl. CBS has 30 days to contest the penalty with the FCC. Following that, the agency will make its final determination on the penalty. The network can appeal that decision in court.
– Bloomberg News
MORGAN STANLEY, BEAR STEARNS QUARTERLY PROFITS FALL
Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns Cos. said fiscal third-quarter earnings fell, their first declines in more than a year. The results revived concern that Wall Street profits are slowing, and shares of many securities firms dropped.
Net income at New York-based Morgan Stanley, the No. 2 securities firm by capital, fell 34% to $837 million amid a slump in fixed-income trading revenue. Profit slipped 10% at Bear Stearns after the sixth-biggest securities firm’s investment banking revenue fell from a year earlier, when it had a gain from an asset sale.
Morgan Stanley said in a statement that net income in the three months ended in Aug. 31 declined to $837 million, or 76 cents a share, from $1.27 billion, or $1.15, a year earlier. The firm was expected to earn $1.08 billion, or 95 cents, the average estimate of 18 analysts polled by Thomson Financial.
Bear Stearns’s net income in the fiscal quarter fell to $283.3 million, or $2.09 a share, from $313.4 million, or $2.30, a year ago, the company said in a statement. The firm was expected to earn $277 million, or $1.98 a share, based on the average estimate of 11 analysts in a Thomson survey.
– Bloomberg News
KEYSPAN CHANGES SLOGAN
Keyspan Corp., the largest natural gas distributor in the Northeast, with 2.5 million commercial and residential customers, has launched a new branding campaign. The energy company’s new tag line is “Climate is Everything.” The branding effort will be focused on the company’s customer service operations and will be the centerpiece of a new marketing campaign appearing in print publications; on local, network, and cable TV stations, and on radio.
– Staff Reporter of the Sun
IN THE COURTS
QUATTRONE ASKS TO AVOID PRISON PENDING APPEAL
Former star technology banker Frank Quattrone asked an appellate court to allow him to stay out of prison while his appeal is pending.
In a motion filed yesterday, Mark F. Pomerantz, Quattrone’s appellate lawyer, asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to allow Quattrone to remain free on bail until his appeal is heard. Quattrone filed a notice of appeal – an initial document saying he will appeal the matter – last week.
“Quattrone’s conviction rests precariously on the jury’s answer to a single, elusive question: What was in his mind when he endorsed Richard Char’s e-mail and advised the bankers in his group to “follow these procedures?’,” Mr. Pomerantz said. “The defendant testified that he had no intent to obstruct justice. Whether the jury could have concluded otherwise beyond a reasonable doubt, based upon the meager circumstantial evidence of intent that the government introduced, is itself an extremely “close” issue.”
Quattrone was sentenced on September 8 to 18 months in prison and two years of supervised release. He has vowed to appeal and declared his innocence in a brief press conference minutes after the sentencing.
– Dow Jones Newswires
EX-ENRON MANAGER SAYS SHE WAS PUNISHED FOR DISCLOSING BARGE DEAL
An ex-Enron Corp. manager said she was yelled at and lost $10,000 in bonus money for disclosing a side-agreement with Merrill Lynch & Co. that disguised a $7 million loan as a sale of energy-producing barges.
Amanda Colpean said ex-company accountant Sheila Kahanek, on trial in Houston federal court with five other Enron and Merrill executives for fraud, yelled at her for issuing a memorandum about the barge deal that included a secret agreement to return Merrill’s investment. Colpean said she received a negative job review shortly thereafter.
Prosecutors claim that Ms. Kahanek, 38, a second former Enron employee and four ex-Merrill executives conspired to artificially boost Enron’s finances by $12 million with the sham sale of energy-producing Nigerian barges to the bank. The defendants contend they thought the transaction was a true sale.
“She felt free to come into my office, yell at me and tell me what I had done would jeopardize the company,” Ms. Colpean testified of Ms. Kahanek, who was her subordinate. Ms. Kahanek told her to destroy all copies of the memorandum, Ms. Colpean claimed.
– Bloomberg News