Matsushita Electric Industrial Co

Matsushita, MCA to Form Videodisc Unit: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and MCA Inc. will form a Los Angeles company to produce films for videodisc systems, according to the Japanese newspaper Nihon Keisai Shimbun. The company, Digital Video Compression Corp., will be owned by Matsushita and staffed by employees from Matsushita and MCA, the newspaper said.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. officially handed over the keys of MCA Inc. to their new owner Monday morning, in what has become for Seagram Co. a highly publicized if somewhat fitful entrance into the entertainment business. Edgar Bronfman Jr., chief executive of the Montreal-based beverage company, had hoped to announce a new management team shortly after closing the $5.7-billion purchase of 80% of MCA.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied an appeal by Dean Witter, Discover & Co. over its antitrust lawsuit against Visa U.S.A., allowing Visa to exclude from its franchise those banks that are owned by the rival card issuer. Separately, the court agreed to review a lower federal court ruling refusing to recognize the settlement of shareholder litigation stemming from Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.'s 1990 acquisition of MCA Inc.

Reports of yet another potential takeover of Apple Computer--this time by a troika of technology companies--boosted the company's shares 8% Friday. Software maker Oracle Corp. and consumer electronics giants Philips N. V. of the Netherlands and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. of Japan are mulling a joint bid for Apple, according to the Jan. 16 issue of Information Week, an industry trade magazine.

Intel Corp., the world's largest maker of computer chips, said Friday that it will build new plants in Israel, Ireland and Malaysia at a cost of more than $3.1 billion to meet an expected surge in demand. Meanwhile, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. announced that it will spend more than $600 million to expand a plant in Puyallup, Wash., and will build a new factory in Indonesia as part of its strategy to nearly double chip production by the beginning of the next century.