Business briefs

Web posted March 18, 2000

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From Staff and Wire Reports

Car dealer group to list prices online DETROIT -- A trade group for car dealers will soon have its own Internet site that hopes to compete for business by listing invoice prices, the amount new car dealers pay to manufacturers.

The site from the National Automobile Dealers Association, NADAdealers.com, will go online in late April or early May.

It will include inventories of new and used vehicles, invoice prices on new vehicles and a directory of dealers searchable by distance. The site will have about 7,000 dealers as partners when it launches, and NADA hopes nearly all of its 19,500 member dealers will eventually join the site.

Deciding to put invoice prices online ``was one of the toughest decisions we've ever made,'' NADA President Frank McCarthy said.

NADA found about 50 Internet sites already posting new vehicle invoice prices. Mr. McCarthy said the public had come to require such prices as part of the deal, and if NADA's site didn't offer the information consumers would go elsewhere on the Internet.

Tandy announces name change

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Tandy Corp. is changing its name to RadioShack Corp. in what the company called a sign of confidence in the future of its electronics stores.

Tandy owns or franchises about 7,100 RadioShack stores in the United States. The change would require approval by stockholders.

Government orders rail moratorium

WASHINGTON -- Concerned about service problems after recent railroad mergers, the government Friday ordered a moratorium on new consolidations in that industry.

The Surface Transportation Board ordered railroads to suspend any merger activity while it develops new rules for mergers, a process expected to take about 15 months.

The moratorium follows the announcement of the proposed $6 billion merger of Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Canadian National Railway, which would create a network of 50,000 miles of track.

Phone company goes bankrupt

NEW YORK -- Iridium LLC gave up its search for new backers Friday, and a bankruptcy judge gave the mobile phone company permission to cut off service to 55,000 customers and burn its satellites in the earth's atmosphere.

The ruling capped a stunning corporate embarrassment for Motorola Corp., Iridium's lead investor, and other major companies who funded the often quixotic quest to link up the remotest reaches of earth with powerful mobile phones.