Nextera Enterprises

NextEra Enterprises, an investment group backed by financier Michael Milken and Redwood Shores-based Oracle Corp.'s Lawrence Ellison, said it will acquire Symmetrix Inc. as the first step in creating a consulting firm with $1 billion in revenue. NextEra groups an unspecified number of investors along with the Oracle chief executive and the former junk bond financier.

NextEra Enterprises, an investment group backed by financier Michael Milken and Redwood Shores-based Oracle Corp.'s Lawrence Ellison, said it will acquire Symmetrix Inc. as the first step in creating a consulting firm with $1 billion in revenue. NextEra groups an unspecified number of investors along with the Oracle chief executive and the former junk bond financier.

Nextera Enterprises Inc., a consulting firm controlled by former junk-bond king Michael Milken's and Lawrence Ellison's Knowledge Universe, has filed for an initial public offering that could raise as much as $87 million. Founded in February 1997, Nextera has grown rapidly through acquisitions. The firm had pro forma combined 1997 revenue of $76.5 million, though it lost $7.4 million, according to its IPO filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Stocks rallied at the end of an erratic session Wednesday as falling bond yields dampened worries about the Federal Reserve's warning Tuesday about interest rates. In other trading, gold fell to a new 20-year low. The dollar rose to a seven-month high against the yen, bolstered by the Fed. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average added 50.44 points, or 0.5%, to close at 10,887.39 after changing direction several times. Broader stock indicators also closed higher.

William S. Lerach, who has built a legal empire filing securities fraud lawsuits and collecting multimillion-dollar settlements from corporate America, on Tuesday agreed to pay $50 million to settle a suit by one of his targets. The settlement, among the largest ever agreed to by a law firm, came as a federal jury prepared to tack potential punitive damages onto a $45-million judgment issued Monday against Lerach and his firm.

Here at the Century Plaza Hotel, where corporate raiders once paid homage to a junk bond king, hundreds of eager schoolteachers now await an audience with the same man: Michael Milken. Unlike those financiers, these teachers have little interest in the old Milken, the Encino native who revolutionized Wall Street and served time in prison for securities fraud.