Akio Tanii

MCA Inc. is quietly preparing to roll out the red carpet next week for top executives from Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., its new corporate parent. Matsushita President Akio Tanii and a small contingent of executives from the Osaka, Japan-based company are expected to visit MCA's Universal City headquarters beginning Tuesday, according to people familiar with the trip. It will be their first call since Matsushita agreed to buy the entertainment conglomerate last year for $6.59 billion.

The president of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which owns Los Angeles-based entertainment giant MCA Inc., resigned Tuesday in the face of an embarrassing loan scandal and a lingering sales slump. In a characteristically Japanese gesture, Akio Tanii publicly accepted responsibility for the company's problems and said he was moving aside to make way for new management at the Osaka-based manufacturing giant. Tanii was immediately replaced by Yoichi Morishita, an executive vice president.

The president of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which owns Los Angeles-based entertainment giant MCA Inc., resigned Tuesday in the face of an embarrassing loan scandal and a lingering sales slump. In a characteristically Japanese gesture, Akio Tanii publicly accepted responsibility for the company's problems and said he was moving aside to make way for new management at the Osaka-based manufacturing giant. Tanii was immediately replaced by Yoichi Morishita, an executive vice president.

MCA Inc. is quietly preparing to roll out the red carpet next week for top executives from Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., its new corporate parent. Matsushita President Akio Tanii and a small contingent of executives from the Osaka, Japan-based company are expected to visit MCA's Universal City headquarters beginning Tuesday, according to people familiar with the trip. It will be their first call since Matsushita agreed to buy the entertainment conglomerate last year for $6.59 billion.

One minor obstacle to a possible sale of MCA Inc. to Matsushita Electric is the Hollywood studio's ownership of television station WWOR-TV, which covers the huge New York market. Federal regulations prohibit foreign entities from owning more than 20% of a broadcast station.

Nineteen ninety-one can be counted on to be a tough year during which the people in the spotlight largely will be the people on the spot--those out fighting the economic battles in a downturn. Some of the following bear watching for signs of success and others for fears of failure. Which farmland cliche will apply? Will they be part of the cream that rises to the top? Or the chaff that is separated from the wheat? ROBERT C.

Matsushita Electric Industrial, Japan's biggest consumer electronics company, said President Toshihiko Yamashita, 66, will resign next month to make way for his handpicked successor. Yamashita, president of Matsushita since 1977, will be succeeded by Akio Tanii, 57, currently executive vice president.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. has been found by U.S. authorities to have infringed on a software copyright of International Business Machines, a Matsushita spokesman said Tuesday. The giant electric and electronic company has agreed to pay a penalty for illegally copying IBM's so-called BIOS in making its IBM-compatible personal computers exported to the U.S. and European markets. The BIOS, or basic input-output system, controls the movement of data in and out of the computer.

Japanese microchip makers unveiled a plan Tuesday to help smaller foreign firms sell chips here, trying to extend the recent success bigger firms have had in selling to Japan. The 10-point outline by the Electronic Industries Assn. of Japan offers few new ideas. But it does endorse for the first time some of the cooperative measures that have helped large firms gain access to the market. "Up until now it has been the big companies that have expanded their market shares.

MCA Inc. stock rose $4 a share Friday to close at $57.875 in New York Stock Exchange trading amid reports of progress in the entertainment company's talks to be acquired by Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Wall Street traders pointed in particular to a report from Japan's Mainichi Shimbun, a large Tokyo newspaper. The report said Matsushita executives had decided to bid for all of MCA, reversing a reported move to buy just MCA's film and TV divisions. In an Oct.

Nineteen ninety-one can be counted on to be a tough year during which the people in the spotlight largely will be the people on the spot--those out fighting the economic battles in a downturn. Some of the following bear watching for signs of success and others for fears of failure. Which farmland cliche will apply? Will they be part of the cream that rises to the top? Or the chaff that is separated from the wheat? ROBERT C.

One minor obstacle to a possible sale of MCA Inc. to Matsushita Electric is the Hollywood studio's ownership of television station WWOR-TV, which covers the huge New York market. Federal regulations prohibit foreign entities from owning more than 20% of a broadcast station.

Top executives of MCA Inc. and Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. will meet in face-to-face bargaining here next weekend as acquisition talks between the companies head into what appears to be the home stretch. Both Matsushita President Akio Tanii and MCA Chairman Lew R. Wasserman are expected to attend the sessions, individuals familiar with the talks said.

Japan grabbed another big movie studio today as MCA Inc. agreed to be purchased by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. in a deal valued at $6.59 billion, or about $71 a share. The deal, announced simultaneously this morning in New York and Osaka, ends long-running speculation about the future of MCA, one of Hollywood's biggest companies. But it also pays shareholders, including Chairman Lew R. Wasserman, much less than many had expected. MCA President Sidney J.