Sunbeam Corp

Sunbeam Corp. said President and Chief Executive Jerry Levin, who took charge of the troubled appliance maker after the firing of Chairman Albert Dunlap nine months ago, will also become chairman. Delray Beach Fla.-based Sunbeam, the largest U.S. maker of small appliances, said Levin, 54, replaces Peter Langerman, 43, an outside director who was recently named chief executive of Franklin Mutual Advisers Inc., Sunbeam's largest shareholder.

Morgan Stanley won a major victory Wednesday when a divided Florida state appeals court threw out a $1.58-billion award to billionaire Ronald Perelman over his 1998 sale of camping equipment company Coleman Co. to Sunbeam Corp. Perelman had accused Morgan Stanley of fraud in helping Sunbeam, an appliance maker, hide its shaky finances while arranging the $1.5-billion Coleman purchase.

Former officials of Sunbeam Corp., a household appliance maker seeking bankruptcy protection, won a judge's approval to pay $31 million to settle a federal class-action lawsuit with shareholders who alleged fraud. After a hearing in West Palm Beach, Fla., U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks approved the settlement, to be paid in part by Sunbeam insurers.

Morgan Stanley suffered a setback in a Florida court Wednesday when a judge ruled that the bank helped Sunbeam Corp. improperly inflate its financial condition as it pursued a takeover of Coleman Co. in 1998. In a related ruling, Florida Circuit Court Judge Elizabeth Maass also ruled that Morgan Stanley's outside counsel, Kirkland & Ellis, could withdraw and she postponed the start of trial until April 4.

* Sunbeam Corp. said its third-quarter loss narrowed to $47.4 million, or 47 cents a share, from a loss of $188.9 million, or $1.88, a year ago, as revenue jumped 21% to $601.6 million. Analysts were expecting a loss of 28 cents. Sunbeam also said it plans to sell its Eastpak backpack unit to raise about $200 million to reduce its $2.3 billion in debt stemming from acquisitions last year.

Sunbeam Corp. posted a higher-than-expected second-quarter loss and said it will sell its Oster barber, beauty and animal-grooming products business. Sunbeam's shares fell 19%. Sunbeam, the No. 1 U.S. maker of small appliances, said its loss from operations increased to $54 million, or 50 cents a share, from $37 million, or 37 cents, a year ago. Sales fell 7.8% to $609.6 million.

Sunbeam Corp. abandoned the 3-month-old restructuring planned by fired Chairman Al Dunlap, reversed a decision to close four factories and plans to sell two businesses. While closing four other plants as planned, the maker of small household appliances said it will keep open plants in Maize, Kan.; Pocola, Okla.; Aurora, Ill.; and Acuna, Mexico. Delray Beach, Fla.

Sunbeam Corp. indicated that it was profitable last year under ousted Chairman Al Dunlap, contrary to its Oct. 20 announcement of plans to restate results. The troubled company issued another revision of its 1996 and '97 results in an amended filing of its 1997 annual report. After its accounting review, Sunbeam showed a profit of $6.8 million for 1997, contrasted with a previously reported loss of $6.4 million, excluding the reversal of restructuring charges, the filing shows.

Sunbeam Corp. said the Justice Department is investigating former Chief Executive Albert J. Dunlap's management of the company as the largest U.S. maker of small appliances revised its bankruptcy recovery plan. The U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan is investigating events at Sunbeam from 1996 through 1998 while Dunlap was chief executive and Russell A. Kersh was chief financial officer, the company said Friday in a Bankruptcy Court filing. Boca Raton, Fla.-based Sunbeam, maker of Mr.

Albert J. Dunlap, a no-nonsense corporate cost cutter whom Sunbeam Corp. hired in July to turn the small-appliance maker around, lived up to his reputation Tuesday and unveiled a massive restructuring plan that will eliminate 6,000 of Sunbeam's 12,000 jobs.

Former Sunbeam Corp. Vice President Donald Uzzi and former Controller Robert J. Gluck agreed to pay $100,000 each to settle regulatory charges for their roles in an alleged fraud led by then-Sunbeam Chairman Albert Dunlap. Sunbeam's lead auditor on the company's 1996 audit, former Arthur Andersen accountant Phillip E. Harlow, also settled Securities and Exchange Commission charges by agreeing to a three-year suspension as a public company auditor.

Sunbeam Corp. said the Justice Department is investigating former Chief Executive Albert J. Dunlap's management of the company as the largest U.S. maker of small appliances revised its bankruptcy recovery plan. The U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan is investigating events at Sunbeam from 1996 through 1998 while Dunlap was chief executive and Russell A. Kersh was chief financial officer, the company said Friday in a Bankruptcy Court filing. Boca Raton, Fla.-based Sunbeam, maker of Mr.

Former Sunbeam Corp. Chief Executive Albert J. Dunlap, known as "Chainsaw Al" for cutting thousands of jobs in the 1990s before the appliance maker filed for bankruptcy reorganization, will pay $500,000 to settle charges he used accounting techniques that hid Sunbeam's financial problems, regulators said Wednesday. Former Chief Financial Officer Russell Kersh will pay $200,000.

Former officials of Sunbeam Corp., a household appliance maker seeking bankruptcy protection, won a judge's approval to pay $31 million to settle a federal class-action lawsuit with shareholders who alleged fraud. After a hearing in West Palm Beach, Fla., U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks approved the settlement, to be paid in part by Sunbeam insurers.

Albert J. Dunlap, former Sunbeam Corp. chairman and chief executive, agreed to pay $15 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit that accused him and other former executives of mismanagement and fraud at the small-appliance maker, attorneys said Monday. The suit against Dunlap--dubbed "Chainsaw Al" for his record of eagerly slashing jobs and expenses at troubled companies--stemmed from the company's abrupt financial nose dive in the late-1990s. Sunbeam filed for bankruptcy protection a year ago.

Arthur Andersen faces a lawsuit over its audit of Sunbeam from Oaktree Capital Management, which in 1998 purchased debt in the now-bankrupt appliance maker. L.A.-based Oaktree claims the accounting firm endorsed Sunbeam's inflated sales and earnings for its 1996 and 1997 fiscal years, which served as "the cornerstone of the marketing effort for the Sunbeam" debt, according to a negligence and fraud suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Allegheny Files New Reorganization Plan: Allegheny International Inc. said it has filed a plan of reorganization for its Sunbeam Corp. subsidiary in an attempt to bring the profitable small appliance maker out of bankruptcy court protection. The new Sunbeam plan, if approved by the court, would pay the unit's creditors 100% of their claims in cash. It is the fifth plan that Allegheny International has filed since entering Chapter 11 reorganization in February, 1988.

The American Medical Assn. will pay Sunbeam Corp. $9.9 million after pulling out of a five-year deal in which the doctors' group was to endorse the company's products in exchange for royalties. Widely regarded as unethical, the controversy led to the dismissal of five AMA staff members. The settlement averts a trial, which had been set for Nov. 2 in federal court in Chicago. The AMA backed out of the deal after many criticized it because the group did not plan to test the products.

Federal securities regulators Tuesday accused former top executives at Sunbeam Corp.--including former Chief Executive Albert Dunlap--of financial fraud that cost investors billions of dollars. The Securities and Exchange Commission accused Dunlap and Sunbeam's former chief financial officer, Russell Kersh, of trying to create the illusion that the ailing maker of Mr. Coffee machines and other small appliances was successfully restructuring itself to facilitate its sale in 1998.

Accounting firm Andersen has agreed to pay $110 million to Sunbeam Corp. shareholders to settle a fraud lawsuit concerning its work for the struggling appliance maker. The settlement is the second-largest ever paid by an accounting firm in a securities lawsuit, said Robert Kornreich, an attorney for shareholders. Boca Raton, Fla.