Mcgraw Hill Inc

McGraw-Hill Inc. said it has acquired TAB Books Inc., a nonfiction book publisher, for an undisclosed sum. TAB Books, based in Blue Ridge Summit, Pa., publishes books in 12 fields including computing, electronics, aviation, engineering and several how-to subjects.

Consumer research firm J.D. Power & Associates, best known for its automotive quality surveys, said Monday that it would be sold to information media giant McGraw-Hill Cos., which owns corporate credit rating service Standard & Poor's and Business Week magazine. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Westlake Village-based Power has been on the block for about six months and its market value has been estimated by analysts at as much as $400 million. The sale is expected to close in April.

Consumer research firm J.D. Power & Associates, best known for its automotive quality surveys, said Monday that it would be sold to information media giant McGraw-Hill Cos., which owns corporate credit rating service Standard & Poor's and Business Week magazine. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Westlake Village-based Power has been on the block for about six months and its market value has been estimated by analysts at as much as $400 million. The sale is expected to close in April.

McGraw-Hill Cos., the largest publisher of energy industry newsletters, was ordered by a federal judge to show why it withheld some records sought in an investigation of natural gas price manipulation. The energy trading probe has led to $25 million in payments from Dynegy Inc. and El Paso Corp. to settle charges that their traders attempted to manipulate prices by reporting false data to newsletters published by the Platts unit of McGraw-Hill. A hearing was scheduled for June 2 before U.S.

Publishing giant McGraw-Hill Inc. announced plans to restructure some operations to enhance growth, including a 5% cut in its work force, but said profit growth remains on track. McGraw-Hill, a publisher of textbooks whose properties include Standard & Poor's financial services and BusinessWeek magazine, said it will take a pre-tax restructuring charge of $159million, including $129million in asset writedowns and $30million in employee severance costs.

California Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante has filed a class-action lawsuit alleging that publisher McGraw-Hill Cos. and several energy companies worked together to jack up energy prices in the state. The suit, filed late Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of utility customers, accused the companies of feeding false prices and trade volumes to two energy industry newsletters, Gas Daily and Inside FERC Gas Market Reports, published by a unit of McGraw-Hill.

* Newbridge Networks Corp. said AT&T Corp. will use some of its high-capacity equipment that carries voice, data and video traffic in a new communications network for business customers, which may help the Canadian company win larger contracts. The value of the agreement with AT&T wasn't disclosed. * McGraw-Hill Cos. agreed to sell its Information Technology and Communications Group, which includes computer magazines Byte and LAN Times, to CMP Media Inc. for $28.6 million.

McGraw-Hill Cos., the largest publisher of energy industry newsletters, was ordered by a federal judge to show why it withheld some records sought in an investigation of natural gas price manipulation. The energy trading probe has led to $25 million in payments from Dynegy Inc. and El Paso Corp. to settle charges that their traders attempted to manipulate prices by reporting false data to newsletters published by the Platts unit of McGraw-Hill. A hearing was scheduled for June 2 before U.S.

Microsoft Corp. announced Wednesday that it is joining archrival Netscape Communications in a plan that would give consumers more control over personal information collected on them on the World Wide Web, while publishing giant McGraw-Hill Cos. unveiled its approach to assuring privacy on the Internet. The significantly different approaches were unveiled at Federal Trade Commission hearings that are exploring ways to assure privacy in the emerging digital marketplace.

MCI Communications Corp. said Tuesday that its fourth-quarter profit rose 17% as a record number of long-distance customers accounted for the largest increase in phone traffic in five years. It reported net income of $284 million, or 41 cents a share, up from profit from operations of $243 million, or 35 cents, a year ago. The results are a penny above the 40-cents-a-share average estimate of an analysts' survey.

McGraw-Hill Cos., the publisher of Inside FERC's Gas Market Report, was ordered to provide a summary of natural-gas trading information to lawyers defending a former El Paso Corp. executive. Todd Geiger is accused of fabricating 48 natural-gas trades and reporting the false data to the industry newsletter, which compiles gas price indexes used in supply contracts. He pleaded not guilty in December to wire fraud and making a false trade report. U.S.

California Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante has filed a class-action lawsuit alleging that publisher McGraw-Hill Cos. and several energy companies worked together to jack up energy prices in the state. The suit, filed late Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of utility customers, accused the companies of feeding false prices and trade volumes to two energy industry newsletters, Gas Daily and Inside FERC Gas Market Reports, published by a unit of McGraw-Hill.

Publishing giant McGraw-Hill Inc. announced plans to restructure some operations to enhance growth, including a 5% cut in its work force, but said profit growth remains on track. McGraw-Hill, a publisher of textbooks whose properties include Standard & Poor's financial services and BusinessWeek magazine, said it will take a pre-tax restructuring charge of $159million, including $129million in asset writedowns and $30million in employee severance costs.

McGraw-Hill Cos., which publishes school textbooks and owns Business Week magazine, agreed to buy Torrance-based Frank Schaffer Publications from Canada's Torstar Corp. for an undisclosed amount to add educational publishing. Frank Schaffer, which publishes teacher resource materials for pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, will be incorporated into McGraw-Hill's children's publishing unit. Shares of New York-based McGraw-Hill closed up 45 cents at $70.45 on the Big Board.

Delta Air Lines Inc. and Alaska Air Group Inc. said Tuesday that third-quarter profits fell on higher fuel costs, but Southwest Airlines Co. posted an earnings increase. Southwest and Delta, the third-largest U.S. carrier, were among airlines best protected against rising fuel costs by the use of hedges, analysts said. Low-fare carrier Southwest also gained business from America West Airlines, UAL Corp.'s United Airlines and Alaska, which all had delays or cancellations.

McGraw-Hill Cos., the largest U.S. publisher of educational materials for students, agreed to buy Tribune Co.'s scholastic unit for $634.7 million to add to its line of textbooks. Tribune Education publishes textbooks in math, social studies, health, English and reading for elementary and high school students. It had revenue of about $384 million in 1999.

High Court Refuses to Lift Order on P&G Suit: A Supreme Court justice refused to let BusinessWeek publish a story based on sealed court documents, despite the magazine's claim that the restriction violates the First Amendment. Justice John Paul Stevens turned down an emergency request aimed at lifting the order of U.S. District Judge John Feikens. McGraw-Hill Inc.

Magazine's Owner Goes to High Court: The owner of Business Week magazine asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift a judge's order barring publication of documents from Procter & Gamble Co.'s $195-million lawsuit against Bankers Trust Co. McGraw-Hill Inc. made the request hours after the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati said it had no jurisdiction over last week's order by federal Judge John Feikens.

Standard & Poor's parent company, McGraw-Hill Cos., filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit Thursday against mutual fund giant Vanguard Group, claiming that the firm has violated a 1988 licensing contract that allows Vanguard to create investment products based on S&P's widely used stock indices. Vanguard announced plans last month to introduce a line of so-called exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, designed to mimic the performance of various S&P indices.

A national student testing company was warned of problems in its ranking system four months before it admitted problems to the New York City Board of Education. Tennessee education officials told CTB/McGraw-Hill last spring that its ranking system was wrong, figuring that the company would alert other states to the problem.