Firms

The Rev. Leon Sullivan, who first pushed U.S. businessmen to implement human rights reforms at their plants in South Africa, says the time has come for "corporate civil disobedience" by American firms in the racially torn nation. "No company is doing enough now," said the Philadelphia minister who nine years ago penned the widely publicized "Sullivan Principles" as an anti- apartheid primer for U.S. corporations in South Africa. Sullivan, holding a news conference yesterday on the 10th anniversary of the Soweto uprising, said he sent letters to 195 chief executive officers of U.S. firms urging them to ignore any South African government regulation that reinforces apartheid, the racial policy that denies many rights to the country's 24 million black residents.

The five firms that have sold the more than 2.3 million all-terrain vehicles in use in this country agreed yesterday to stop selling the three- wheeled models that have been described by state officials and safety experts as "killer machines. " The action, hailed by federal officials as a major step toward ending the high rate of injuries associated with all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), was attacked by congressional opponents and consumer groups as a pyrrhic victory because the firms already had planned on ending manufacture of the vehicles next year.

The Goode administration yesterday called on outdoor-advertising firms to identify all their unlicensed billboards in the city - believed to number in the thousands - or face possible legal action and heavy court fines. Officials of the Department of Licenses and Inspections met with representatives of 10 firms and asked them to disclose where their signs are and whether the firms had obtained the required permits and licenses before putting them up. David L. Wismer, deputy commissioner of L&I, said he told the companies that if they did not comply within two weeks, the department would gather the information on its own, file charges against the owners of unlicensed signs and ask judges to impose the "maximum penalties.

Several local firms and dozens of national companies moved into the stock market yesterday, pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into Wall Street to snap up shares of their own stocks. Some firms bought back their own shares to take advantage of what they deemed to be bargain prices. Some bought as a way to bolster confidence in their long-term business prospects. And others moved into the market defensively, putting more shares into friendly hands and supporting the prices, lest corporate raiders scoop up their suddenly cheaper shares.

Four area waste-management firms submitted bids to Chester County on Tuesday to process recyclable materials collected from municipalities throughout the county. The bids were part of a county effort, headed by recycling coordinator Paul Bickhart, to ease the burden on municipalities by having one common materials processor with fixed prices for a three-year period. "This saves towns from having to look for their own processor and do their own marketing," Bickhart said. He said that five municipalities had signed agreements with the county to use whichever firm was selected, and that 12 other towns had expressed interest.

A constant stream of death notices for formerly high-flying dot-coms and technology firms hasn't discouraged the hatching of a new batch of technology companies in the Philadelphia area. Jeffrey Tannenbaum, CEO of EnhanceNOW, sees the selection of his 18-month old firm as one of nine finalists for the "Bennie" Awards as validation for months of hard work. "This means a lot to us," Tannenbaum said. "We've worked very hard over the past year and a half to bring this project to fruition and the nomination brings it all together.

It took $1.7 million from the city and state - not to mention a miniature Liberty Bell thrown in for good measure - but for the first time in what Mayor Rendell called "an awful long time," a Fortune 500 company officially announced yesterday that it would move its headquarters to Philadelphia. The Lincoln Financial Group, of Fort Wayne, Ind., confirmed a few months ago that it had selected the region over Boston, Chicago and Hartford for its new headquarters. Yesterday, it further announced that it had chosen Center City over the suburbs.

John J. Tracy Jr., 58, of Overbrook Farms, an educator who later became a human-resources specialist, died of complications from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma Monday at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. A 1967 graduate of Cardinal O'Hara High School in Springfield, Delaware County, Mr. Tracy earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Temple University in 1971. Afterward, he taught seventh grade at St. Barnabas School in Southwest Philadelphia for three years while continuing his studies at Temple.

Pierce Business Archives, the corporate-records management company with headquarters in Folcroft, Delaware County, yesterday acquired Leahy Business Archives of New York from a British holding company. Pierce paid Britannia Security Group PLC $36 million for Leahy in a deal financed by Prudential Capital Corp. The combined company, which will be called Pierce Leahy Corp., is expected to have annual sales of $50 million - double Pierce's volume of $25 million last year - and to give Pierce a national presence.

One of the hardest-fought regulatory battles in Washington right now involves the financial derivatives that are key to the Wall Street money machine and played a big role in the collapse last year of American International Group Inc. and Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc. Politicians are focused on how derivatives - particularly those designed to limit the risk of loan defaults - helped bring the global financial system to its knees by allowing speculators to make massive debt-fueled bets.