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.

RETAIL
WAL-MART TO MATCH PRICES OF COMPETITORS TO WIN HOLIDAY BUYERS
Wal-Mart Stores, the world’s biggest retailer, will open stores an hour earlier this year on Black Friday and match any competitors’ price to win holiday sales after a lackluster season last year.
Wal-Mart on Friday will also offer a 42-inch plasma television for $997, selected DVDs for $3.44, and a Hewlett-Packard desktop computer with a 15-inch LCD flat panel monitor for $398 from 5 a.m to 11 a.m. Last year, its stores opened at 6 a.m. The company will match any price on an identical item featured in a competitor’s print ad, according to a statement yesterday.
“There’s no ambiguity to the message that they have been putting out,” said Patricia Edwards, a Seattle-based portfolio manager at Wentworth, Hauser & Violich, with $6.4 billion in assets including Wal-Mart shares.
Wal-Mart last year was slow to discount early in the holiday season, forcing it to take the unusual step in December of running full-page newspaper ads highlighting price cuts on about two dozen holiday items. This year, the Bentonville, Ark.-based company started what it called its earliest and most aggressive holiday campaign ever on November 1.
Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club will also open at 5 a.m. for the first time and offer free breakfast to shoppers, the company’s chief financial officer, Tom Schoewe, said in an interview last week.
Wal-Mart is expanding the upscale merchandise it carries online and in its discount and Sam’s Club stores, adding items like $100 cashmere men’s trench coats to compete with no. 2 discount chain Target, whose sales have outpaced it all year.
The strategy may be working. Target today cut its November forecast same-store sales gain by half, to 2% to 3%.
– Bloomberg News
FOOD & BEVERAGE
BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY DISCLOSES A STAKE IN ANHEUSER-BUSCH
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway disclosed a 5.7% stake in Anheuser-Busch after the Securities and Exchange Commission denied a request to keep the holdings confidential.
Berkshire held 44.7 million shares of the world’s biggest brewer as of September 30, the Omaha, Neb.-based company said in regulatory filings yesterday. It was also forced to report 19.9 million shares of Wal-Mart Stores, the largest retailer.
Mr. Buffett, the billionaire chairman of the insurance and investment company, sometimes seeks the SEC’s permission to keep holdings secret in order to prevent copycat investing. Berkshire hadn’t quantified its Anheuser-Busch holdings since the St. Louis-based Budweiser maker told investors in April that the company had taken a “significant” stake.
The 75-year-old Mr. Buffett has built Berkshire by buying out-of-favor stocks and businesses. Anheuser-Busch’s stock is down 14% this year because consumers increasingly favor wine and spirits.
Berkshire’s Anheuser-Busch stake would make it the largest shareholder, followed by Barclays with 42.5 million shares, according to Bloomberg data.
– Bloomberg News
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
SPRINT NEXTEL AGREES TO BUY ALAMOSA FOR $3.4 BILLION
Sprint Nextel Corp., the third-largest American mobile-phone provider, agreed to buy affiliate Alamosa Holdings for $3.4 billion to end a legal dispute and gain almost 1.5 million direct customers.
Alamosa shareholders will receive $18.75 a share, Reston, Va.-based Sprint said yestserday in a statement. The offer is 16% more than Alamosa’s closing price last week. The transaction includes net debt of $900 million, Sprint said.
Sprint has agreed to spend more than $5 billion to resolve disputes with affiliates stemming from the $36 billion merger of Sprint and Nextel Communications. Affiliates such as Alamosa, the largest seller of Sprint service, claimed the combination would result in the company competing in their areas, breaching their contracts. Sprint remains in talks to reach an accord with Nextel Partners, Nextel’s largest affiliate. – Bloomberg News
IN BRIEF
Holiday sales at American retailers may rise 5% from a year earlier, the smallest gain since 2002, as higher gasoline and home-heating costs restrain consumer spending … TiVo, struggling to maintain subscriber growth for its digital video recorders, will test a feature that allows viewers to transfer programs to Apple’s iPod and Sony’s PlayStation Portable … Cadbury Schweppes, the maker of Dr Pepper soda and Trident gum, plans to sell its European soft-drink unit to the Blackstone Group and Lion Capital for $2.2 billion to concentrate on beverages in America and candy worldwide.
– Bloomberg News