USA Interactive, Textron Slide As Investors' Forbearance Ebbs
NEW YORK -- Yesterday's stock-market rout again demonstrated how strong investors' contempt for corporate America's creative accounting and earnings misfortunes has become.</br></br>French entertainment company Vivendi Universal's American depositary shares sank $4.69, or 21%, to $17.76, sliding to a fresh 52-week low, after a news report in France said the company tried to bolster profits in 2001 through aggressive accounting of some assets. The slide came amid a pickup in volume, with 12 times the average daily volume in Vivendi securities changing hands in New York.</br></br>Investors also lashed out at other names in the media and entertainment sector. The selloff took a special toll on companies that have aggressively consolidated media assets during the years. Shares of AOL Time Warner fell 99 cents, or 7%, to 12.52, slumping to a 52-week low. USA Interactive eased 1.59, or 7%, to 20.66 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Online-advertising concern DoubleClick fell 98 cents, or 15%, to 5.45 on Nasdaq, trading in range of the 52-week low of $5.23, set Sept. 27.</br></br>Shares of Cardinal Health sank as much as 18% intraday in response to what company officials called an erroneous rumor about its dealings with former accounting firm, Arthur Andersen. Cardinal Health, which finished the day off 2.89, or 5%, at 54.41, insisted that there was nothing wrong with its accounting practices. It isued a news release saying, "We find ourselves in an unprecedented time of suspicion and lack of trust in the capital markets."</br></br>"It's important that companies are taking steps like this, trying to send a message that they are not tone deaf to what investors are concerned about," Richard Cripps, chief market strategist at Legg Mason, said.