Procter & Gamble and the Coca Cola Co. made the decision to form a new company together worth over $4 billion in sales.  The new name of the company has not yet been released, but the companies reported that the new product the company will be making will be their new name.  The new company's focus will be on the making of non-carbonated and juice based drinks.  Both P&G and Coke believe the partnership will help each company out drastically and will give them the advantage over the Pepsi Co, with their increasing Tropicana sales.  Coca Cola will offer its worldwide distribution system, while P&G will offer it renowned research and development skills to the new company.  The new company will have about 40 different brands, employ 6000, and have 15 manufacturing plants.

      Some analysts believe Coke may have gotten the low-end of the deal from the joint venture with Procter & Gamble.  The reason for this is that while Coke contributed its whole Minute Maid juice unit to the new firm, P&G is only contributing two brands-Sunny Delight and Pringles- which growth has been somewhat stagnant.  In addition, after the agreement, Coke's stock dropped 6.1% while P&G's gained $1.09 making it $76.80 a share.  The main point analysts are pointing out is that Coke contributed half of the profit of its growing juice business, while P&G only gave up two of their declining brands.  Analysts also say the the plan is to boost the sales of Sunny Delight and Pringles, but argue that mixing snacks and beverages on the same delivery truck may pose problems, as it did for Anheuser-Busch in 1996.

   Procter and Gamble announced that they are going to sell off Spic and Span and Cinch to a new marketing company formed by the Shansby Group, excluding the Professional Line Spic and Span .  P&G president of Global Home Care, Mike Clasper, said that Spic and Span and Cinch are no longer a strategic fit for P&G, and are looking more towards building big brands that "offer the greatest potential for global growth."  The Shansby Group, headed out of San Francisco, is an investment company that buys brands from quality companies with substantial growth potential.  They have previosly invested in Famous Amos Cookies and Cutex nail polish remover among other products.

Last Spring, Kay Napier, head of P&G's North American drug business, was assigned to market the new drug, Actonel, that helps treat osteoporosis.  After Napier was diagnosed with breast cancer in winter of 1999, and had chemotherapy, she too started using Actonel, since the chemotherapy resulted in a loss of bone mass.  This gave Napier new insights on how to market the drug since she too was taking it to treat the loss of bone mass.  After a couple different ideas, one showing an old woman gardening with the slogan "Act now with Actenol", Kay decided P&G must take a different approach to endorsing Actonel.  The team came up with the idea with a picture of a woman reading "THE WARRIOR" with her weapon being a box of Actenol.  P&G says they see the drug industry as having great growth opportunity.  P&G believes that its pharmaceutical business can take on the bigger drug companies by mixing their marketing techniques with the advertising.

Procter & Gamble reported that the currency crisis in Turkey will shave "two to three cents a share off its profit for the fiscal third quarter ending in March."  Turkey is also accountable for 1% of P&G's world wide revenue of about $40 billion.  Although P&g believes the currency crisis in turkey will cause a small loss, Coca-Cola and Unilever do not believe this will cause changes in their earnings.  In addition, "For the fiscal third quarter, P&G expects core earnings per dilute share to be 69 cents to 72 cents."  P&G reports that its expectancies are based upon the expected decline in sales due to the currency's value.  Although P&G expects a small loss, they do not believe there is any reason to change anything in respect to the outlook for the whole fiscal year.

After Turkey's Central Bank added dollars and lira into the country's bad financial market, it caused devalued Turkish lira and caused stocks to rise.  This caused prices on the Istanbul Stock Exchange to rise 6% and interest rates to fall 140%.  As a result of the decreased value of the lira, Procter & Gamble announced that they will have a slight cut in earnings, since this is P&G's 12th biggest market.  In addition, the addition of lira has caused a 10% price increase for cigarettes and alcohol.  It is reported that a three-year program will take inflation down from 80% in the 1990s to the single digits by 2002.

Procter & Gamble Co. brought Amway Corp., a seller of household products, to court on charges that the corporation spread rumors of P&G having ties with Satanism.  P&G claims that Amway spread rumors in the early 1980s that P&G's logo was a symbol of Satanism, and that Amway used a voice-mail system to tell thousands of customers that part of P&G's profits go to Satanic cults.  Recently, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans had a Houston trial judge reconsider product disparagement and racketeering claims that were dismissed in 1999.  Although Amway said its distributors never spread the rumors, the case is still being reviewed and P&G hasn't yet given up.

      On February 22, many stocks declined, especially those in the technological areas.  Sun Microsystems dropped $2.63, causing its 52 week low after Merill Lynch reporting weakness in Suns storage business and the declining economy.  Also, Cisco Systems fell 94 cents, yielding another 52 week low for their stock.  Also, retailers suck as Wal-Mart Stores and Home Depot each fell around $3 each.  Many believe that the global economy conditions, including the crisis in turkey has caused investments to get worse.  Also, shares in Coca-Cola fell after its plans to form the joint venture with Procter & Gamble; while P&G gained 1.09.  Investors are supposedly looking to buy U.S. equities, but many are finding it better to sell at the time.

  Recently, Coca-Cola has had sluggish sales and dropping stock after a rough last year and after the announcement of the joint venture with Procter & Gamble.  This year, Douglass Daft, chairman of Coca-Cola, is making an effort to change Coke from its centralized and bureaucratic ways to the nimble, local marketer it once was.  In addition, after PepsiCo Inc. bought Quaker Oats Co.'s Gatorade, Coke felt that they needed to from alliances to gain more research and expertise that Coke currently lacks.  Also, Coke has made agreements with Nestle to develop and market coffees and teas and with Walt Disney Co. to help market children's beverages around the world.  Mr. Daft explains that the company's goal is to boost worldwide volume by 6% to 7% this year, while analysts believe Coke's extra spendings is showing that they're having to add resources to reach its targets.

After 23 years with Leo Burnett USA as chief marketing officer, Mary Bishop is planning to retire from the Chicago based ad agency on March 1.  The Leo Burnett USA company is one of the largest advertising agencies in the US, and works with the US Army, Procter & Gamble, and Kellogg.  Ms. Bishop believes taking this early retirement will give her much-needed time to spend with her family and six grandchildren.  Ms. Bishop also worked with Bcom3, which prompted Chief Executive Roger Haupt to say that Ms. Bishop was "a key part of the management team responsible for Burnett's most successful year ever in new business growth capturing $600 million in new billings."

Grupo Televisa was looking to renegotiate their terms of contract with Universion Communications Inc. for their involvement in Spanish-language media.  Right now, Univision Communications is the leading U.S Spanish language broadcaster in Mexico.  In addition, while Telivisa has 75% of the Mexican television audience, TV Azteca has caused Telivisa some loss.  These companies are trying to move into Mexico because of its growing population.  Sales at Univision has grown by 25% last year from increased use for advertising from Procter & Gamble and other companies.  While the TV companies are making headway in Mexico, Televisa and Azteca are looking to launch a Spanish-language television network in the U.S.  Televisa believes they will have a better chance in the U.S., after a rough year in Mexico.

   This article describes how many CEOs of large corporations such as Xerox, Procter & Gamble, Maytag, and Gillette either or got ousted in less than two years.  Thomas Neff, U.S. operations chairman of recruiters Spencer Stuart, says that "Some boards are pulling the plugs too quickly" in regards to CEOs.  The rest of this article describes how there are some basic steps that corporate chiefs should follow to "survive".  One of these steps being to pacify angry customers, and fast.  At Sunbeam, a company that makes small appliances and camping goods, Mr. Levin took over and called six major retailers on his second day to apologize for their poor distribution.  As a result, the retailers agreed to give Sunbeam another year to shape up, and give them a chance to build their credibility.  Another area CEOs must pay attention to is "overcommunicating with leading investors".  Am example of this was when Mr. Kozlowski of Tyco held a meeting for 500 big investors in a New York hotel to promise a more user-friendly annual report, which was earlier criticized by the investors.

  After 21 years with the Coca-Cola company, its president and chief operating officer Jack Stahl has decided to resign.  It   is said that the new way Coke will be operating its business in four units, will leave Stahl no clear role.  In an interview, CEO Douglass Daft reported that Stahl has decided to seek new challenges and leadership elsewhere.  The resignation of Jack Stahl occurred after Coke's stock dropped by 11%, two weeks after its announcement of its joint venture with Procter and Gamble Co.  Many believe Jack Stahl's resignation was based on that he didn't eye to eye with Douglas Daft, chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola.  In February 2000, Mr. Daft received $1.27 million in salary and a $3 million bonus during the year, while Jack Stahl received $734,792 with a $1.3 million bonus, and a spokesman said Stahl's separation package will be announced at the company's next proxy.