John Hancock Financial Services

The annual postseason football game played in El Paso's Sun Bowl Stadium will be called the John Hancock Bowl instead of the Sun Bowl. For the last three years, the game's name has been the John Hancock Sun Bowl, but officials of John Hancock Financial Services said most news outlets deleted the John Hancock portion of the name.

Wall Street reacted warily Monday to Manulife Financial Corp.'s bid to buy life insurer John Hancock Financial Inc. for about $10 billion in stock, as concerns mounted that the resulting insurance giant wouldn't achieve promised cost savings. The deal would create the second-largest life insurer in North America and the largest in Canada. Manulife is currently the No. 3 Canadian insurer.

John Hancock Financial Services Inc.'s third-quarter earnings fell 4% as the stock market slump cut into sales of annuities and fees for managing assets. Net income was $158.1 million, or 54 cents a share, compared with $165.2 million, or 54 cents, in the year-ago period as the firm bought back shares. Earnings excluding investment losses were 64 cents, a penny below analyst estimates. Shares of Hancock, which announced its earnings after the close of trading, gained 34 cents to $29.

Manulife Financial Corp., Canada's third-largest insurer, said Sunday that it agreed to buy U.S. life insurer John Hancock Financial Services Inc. for about $10.8 billion, expanding Manulife's operations in the United States. The stock swap deal, the largest corporate transaction in the U.S. so far this year, would vault Manulife back into the top spot among Canadian insurers and make it the second-largest insurer in North America and No. 5 in the world.

John Hancock Lays Off 700: John Hancock Financial Services laid off 700 employees last week in 31 sales offices around the country, company officials confirmed. Most who lost their jobs were field office sales agents in offices that Hancock's chairman and chief executive, Stephen L. Brown, said were unprofitable.

John Hancock Financial Services Inc. said it agreed to sell its group life insurance operations to MetLife Inc. as it concentrates on its main businesses. Boston-based Hancock has been moving to divest itself of its non-core operations for the last several years. It has been focusing on businesses such as individual life insurance, long-term care insurance, annuities and structured financial products and institutional investment management. The deal is expected to close this year.

The Boston Marathon, a late entry into the big-money era of road racing, has reached a rich sponsorship agreement that will extend through the year 2008. The 20-year deal between John Hancock Financial Services and the Boston Athletic Assn., announced Tuesday, replaces a 10-year, $10-million arrangement that began with the 1986 race, its first sponsorship. Under the new agreement, which starts with Monday's race, Hancock will provide an average of $1.3 million per year in funds and services through 2003.

The Los Angeles Times has been named a winner of the 1992 John Hancock Financial Services Awards for Excellence in Business and Financial Journalism. The award for newspapers with circulation above 300,000 went to Scot Paltrow of the Los Angeles Times Business staff for his investigative series, "Investors at Risk." The series documented widespread fraud against small investors by brokerage firms.

The Los Angeles Marathon lost one of its major sponsors Tuesday, when John Hancock Financial Services announced it will not renew its five-year sponsorship agreement with the race, which expires after Sunday's race. The firm is one of six of the race's major sponsors, and its annual contribution is reportedly about $250,000. However, race President William Burke said he will announce at Sunday's race the name of a sponsor to take Hancock's place. At the same time Hancock is dropping the L.A.

John Hancock Financial Services Inc. said it agreed to sell its group life insurance operations to MetLife Inc. as it concentrates on its main businesses. Boston-based Hancock has been moving to divest itself of its non-core operations for the last several years. It has been focusing on businesses such as individual life insurance, long-term care insurance, annuities and structured financial products and institutional investment management. The deal is expected to close this year.

John Hancock Financial Services Inc.'s third-quarter earnings fell 4% as the stock market slump cut into sales of annuities and fees for managing assets. Net income was $158.1 million, or 54 cents a share, compared with $165.2 million, or 54 cents, in the year-ago period as the firm bought back shares. Earnings excluding investment losses were 64 cents, a penny below analyst estimates. Shares of Hancock, which announced its earnings after the close of trading, gained 34 cents to $29.

The initial public offering market has been welcoming many Internet and biotech stocks with open arms, but several IPOs are just feeling squeezed. Among Tuesday's victims: * John Hancock Financial Services (JHF) shares slid further below their recent offering price, dropping $2 to $14 on the New York Stock Exchange. The insurer's stock, which went public Jan. 27 at $17, has dropped more than 20% in the last two sessions. Analysts said underwriter Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co.

John Hancock Financial Services (JHF), the nation's second-largest life insurer, leads U.S. initial public offers next week with a $1.7-billion stock sale, the biggest of about 20 deals on tap as the IPO market gets going after its traditional January break. Still, Internet companies a fraction of Hancock's size are expected to capture the spotlight.

The Los Angeles Times has been named a winner of the 1992 John Hancock Financial Services Awards for Excellence in Business and Financial Journalism. The award for newspapers with circulation above 300,000 went to Scot Paltrow of the Los Angeles Times Business staff for his investigative series, "Investors at Risk." The series documented widespread fraud against small investors by brokerage firms.

John Hancock Lays Off 700: John Hancock Financial Services laid off 700 employees last week in 31 sales offices around the country, company officials confirmed. Most who lost their jobs were field office sales agents in offices that Hancock's chairman and chief executive, Stephen L. Brown, said were unprofitable.

A team of Los Angeles Times business writers who covered the BankAmerica-Security Pacific merger won a top prize in the 25th annual Awards for Excellence in Business and Financial Journalism competition sponsored by John Hancock Financial Services. The team--Martha Groves, Victor F. Zonana, Kathy M.

John Hancock Financial Services (JHF), the nation's second-largest life insurer, leads U.S. initial public offers next week with a $1.7-billion stock sale, the biggest of about 20 deals on tap as the IPO market gets going after its traditional January break. Still, Internet companies a fraction of Hancock's size are expected to capture the spotlight.

A team of Los Angeles Times business writers who covered the BankAmerica-Security Pacific merger won a top prize in the 25th annual Awards for Excellence in Business and Financial Journalism competition sponsored by John Hancock Financial Services. The team--Martha Groves, Victor F. Zonana, Kathy M.

The Los Angeles Marathon lost one of its major sponsors Tuesday, when John Hancock Financial Services announced it will not renew its five-year sponsorship agreement with the race, which expires after Sunday's race. The firm is one of six of the race's major sponsors, and its annual contribution is reportedly about $250,000. However, race President William Burke said he will announce at Sunday's race the name of a sponsor to take Hancock's place. At the same time Hancock is dropping the L.A.