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Show The Salt LakeTribune BUSINESS @ CONSUMER CORNER, C-7 M@ UTAH BRIEFS, C-7 BUSINESS GLANCE, C-8 Page C-6 MEDILBERT, C-7 NOVEMBER 11, 1999 —————E UPS Delivers onWall St reet Indicators Dow Industrials NYSE UPS’ First Day Out | In the largest domestic IPO to Parcel carrier goes public with shares jumping 36% trading at $65 a shareafter an initial offering price of $50 had beensetlate Tuesday. Hereis a look at how the stock performed by five minuteintervals BY JUSTIN BACHMAN $75 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ATLANTA Closingprice: $68.25 +36.5% Shares ofUnited arcel Ser- vice jumped 36 percent Wednesd y on the first day of publictrading as packagehaul investo! raced to owna pieceof the company expectedto deliver much if not most of 70 the goods soldvia the Internet Utah's Top Performers The Bloomberg its initial price of $5 before settling at $68 ai measuresthe stock performance of the state's majorpublicly held companies Stocks closed with mixed results Wed: | as investors once again embraced technolog ay stocks while shunning the broader market Concerns about a thirdinterest rate hikethis year sent blue-chip stocks lower. Ancestry.com Creates E-CommerceDivision Ancestry.comInc., an OremInternet company, has createdan ecommerce component for MyFamily.com, which enables families toset up their own Web sites. The MyFamily Gift Center allows people to create a wishlist for birth- days anda calendarthat will send electronic remindersof comingbirth days andother occassions. Family membersalso can enter a profile of someoneandthenreceivegift recommendations. Ances omhasstruck an agree: ment with a distributor whocarries morethan1 million products. Provo-Orem Hot Market Despite Utah's slowing the Provo-Oremaren onomy, cordingto U.S. Housing Mari publication that monitors morethan300 metropolitan areas. The Provo-Orem areais No. 27 ona list of 50 ofthe hottest markets. The Salt LakeCity area,oneofthe na: 's strongest building markets in thee 1990s, did not make Rising interest rates continue to dampen home-building activity ss the UnitedStates, thepublica. ys. In Utah, risinginterest rates combinedwitha slowingeconomy is projected to slow down homebuying over the next year. According to the publication, booming markets include the Chica go, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa Bay andSan Diego metropolitanare Thosethat are seeing large drop-offs in therate of home-building are Hous: ton, Dallas, Orlando, Portland and Boston ITEQ Completes Sale ITEQ Inc. of Houston has completed the saleofits Pi agetank operation cently adopted restructuring plan. The company saidthesale, along with arecent liquidation of someof its shop-built tank equipment, re sulted in proceeds of $4 million, w wasused to reduce the compa ny’s outstanding debt For the nine months ended Sept. 30, the two business units generated revenues of approximately $5 million andresulted in aloss from operations York high of $70.18% 51 p.m. on the New tock Exchange. It was the exchange’s mostactive shares ue, with volumeof 80,7 million Stuart Ramson/The Associated Press. “It wasagreg dayfor UPS,” Chairmanand CEO JimKelly said Wednesday from the exchange, which was draped in UPS brown A United Parcel Service truck leaves the UPSDistribution Center in New York City on Wednesday,hours before the UPS becamea publicly traded company. See UPS STOCK, Page C-10 BY MARYANN LIC) ‘THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SAN FRANCISCO Twobig banks hit back Wednesdayat California com munities that have banned ATM surcharges, announcing plans to restrict use oftheir cash machines in the two cities only to their own account holders. Bank of America and Wells Fargo & Co. said they are immediatelycutting off access to non-account holders in Santa Monica, where a ban on the ATM. fees takeseffect toda: Bank of America also said it will sue similar restrictions in San Francisco if the courts fail to overturn a voter-approved city ordinance banning “It's easier and more convenient. I guessI will just have to go to another bank that doeslet meuseit,” she said. San Francisco voters last week became thefirst in the nation to pass a proposition banning the extra ATM thefees. surcharges. A day after the measure “No business should be expected to provide free service to noncustomer: passed by 66percent to 34 percent, Cal- said Gene Taylor, president of Bank of America's Western region. San Francisco's ban of the surcharges cheduled to take effect in December, but has been challenged by banks. A court hearing is set for Monday. The Santa Monica City Council voted last month to prohibit banks from charging noncustomersthetypi cal $1 or $2 surcharge for ATMuse, the ‘st such ban in the nation enacted by a city government and part ofa grow- ing consumer backlash against the surcharges. The surcharges, which are usually tacked on at the time ofthe transaction, areoften levied on top of fees that banks charge their owncustomers for using an ATMcard. A dozenother communities arecon. sidering bans, including Los Angeles and San Diego. Connecticut and Iowa haveused existing laws to banthesurcharges, but Congress has thus far rejectedlegislation to do so nationwide. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which oversees federal courts in California andeight other Western states, said in 1990 that Congress “has declined to restrict state regulation in the ATM context.” Bytoday, Wells Fargo’s 12 ATMsin Santa Monica and Bank of America’s 21 machines will be cut off to everyonebut fornia bankssued to blockit ATM surcharges make uponly a fraction of banks’ revenue.Wells Fargo collects about million annually fromthe charges, less than1 percent of its $15.4 billion in total revenuelast year. But banks say the charges are important to offset the cost of main- anot mee t taining the 24-hour ATM networksthat customers have come to depend upon. Opponents say the charges are unjustifiable at a time of soaring bank profits, Proc teller layoffs and bank branch closures. “Webuilt our network of ATMsfor our customers,” Wells Fargo spokes manLarry Haegsaid. “It’s a service we provide to them, and webelievethat is only fair for noncustomers who want to take advantageofthe convenienceof thenetworktohelp supportit.” One consumer watchdog group plans to ask the California attorney general to investigate whether the banks violated antitrust regulations by colluding on therestrictions. “It's basically a withdrawal of their product from the marketplac Harvey Rosenfield of the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Tax payer and ConsumerRights. “My personal feeling is the people of Santa Monica should potty train these two banks by refusing to even ask for moneyfromtheir machines.” Paul Fraughton/The Salt Lake Tribune Marchersat the University of Utah on Wednesdayprotestagainst a contractor who they say is paying substandard wages to Latino immigrants Trade Unions Protest at U.of U. BYPHIL SAHM THE SALTLAKETRIBUNE Carpenters, plumbers and other trade benefits a California contractor paysits stores information thatis frequently accessed on a server, providing quicker access to that information and making the Internet more effi. cient } A said, ‘If you want the convenienceof however many hundred ATMs, needto open an account with u union members marchedat the Univer. what they call substandard wages and Utah workers. “Over time it makes that competi. tive advantageofthe bigger bank more apparent to potential customers,” he pick nine The marcherstarget California contractor hired by university & Sons Inc. The new customer-only policies mea bef sinc who Lat Wed Ir surg Against Low Wagesfor Latinos Stumpf, ananalyst with A.G. Edwards place where data can be storedtopro: vide quick access. Caching software SS} passes it on her way to classesat Santa Monica City College. ket that could further damage their corporate image,” said Joseph Morford, whoanalyzes Bankof America for Dain Rauscher Wessels in San Francisco. In Santa Monica on Wednesday, Under the agreement, servers madeby Legendwilloffer so-called caching software from Novell Servers are the nerve centers of computer networks. A cacheis a = a Bank of America ATM. “My sametimetheyrisk a backlash in mar- ternet service providers (ISP)in that country, | a small bank andit doesn’t have many ATMs.” YaeKojima, 22, holds an account at SumitomoBankbutalso uses the same Bank of America ATM because she heat exchangers, storage tanks and sonal computers,thatcouldincr the useof Novell software amongIn: Initial offering price: $50 a | || residents puzzled over whether to change their banking habits. “I use this machine becauseit’s convenient,” said Alice Howe, 35, whoseaccountis at First Pacific Bank, sity of Utah on Wednesday, protesting Novell Inc. has struck an agreement with Legend Computer Systems Ltd., China's largest makerofper: 80.77 million shares Banks To Retaliate maybring new business to banks that offer large ATMnetworks, said David Novell Caches In on China Total volume: | California branches of BofA, Wells Fargo say noncustomers can’t use machines anymore the banks’ own customers. “Clearly the thoughtis that this will attract new customers to the bank that are looking for convenience, but at ment 60 ATM Fee Ban Spurs of$2.3 million, the company reported. ITEQ manufactures equipment and provides after-market parts and technical servicesto industrial custom: ers. The company's products include tank products and filtration equip- Openingprice: $65 UPS, the largest Hee IPO to date at $5.47 billion, lass B si ares jumpfrom Utah Index | date, UPS opened its first day of Protesters allege the contractor, Stan dard Dry’ Inc, of San Diego, is taking advantage of Latino workers who come to Utah becauseof thestate's booming construction industry. They marched at the U. because the university employs Standard Drywall on construction projects. A Standard Drywall spokesman said theallegationsare not true. “Wepayabovestandards in Utah andwesupply health insurance to work a that ers free of charge,” said Blaine Caya, the company's vice president and See MARCHERS,Page C-7 you Two Lawsuits Aim to Force Health Insurers to Reveal Criteria for Denying Claims BY GUY BOULTON ‘THESALT LAKE TRIBUNE Two class-action lawsuits filed Wednesday against United Health Group and Prudential Healthcare seek to force the two insurance companiestodisclose the medical criteria used when denying claims. The lawsuits, filed in U.S, District Court, stem from denied medical claims involving teen-agers treated for emo: tional disorders at Brightway Adolescent Hospitalin St. George. Both insurance companies allegedly refused to provide reasons why hospital ization, the recommended treatment, was not considered a medical necessity. “The insurance companies would like to keep the public in the dark as much possible,” said Brian King, the plaintiff's lawyer, A class-action lawsuit is filed by a representative member or members on behalfof all the members of a group. The trial court must certify the lawsuit as class-action. Onelawsuit was filed by Abilio Her. nandez, on behalf of himself and as guardian for his son, against Prudential Healthcare. The other lawsuit was filed by N. Clynn Mann, individually and as guardian for his son, against United Health Group. Hernandez and Mann also are plaintiffs in separate lawsuits seeking pay mentfor the denied claims. United Health Groupdeclined to com ment on whetherit discloses the medical criteria used to deny a claim. The com: pany said it declined to comment because the question was connected to pending litigation, Prudential Life Insurance Co. of America referred questions to Aetna U.S. Healthcare, which recently bought Pru dential Healthcare, Attempts to reach Aetna late Wednesday were unsuccessful. Nationally, an estimated 3 percent of all health-insuranceclaimsinitially are denied payment, andabout half of those claims are later paid after an initial review, said Richard Coorsh, a spokes: man for the Health Insurance Associa tion of America, an insurance trade Up. Coorsh also said employers typical specify what benefits are covered by their policies, Butl |
