ROUNDUP
ECONOMY T-bill yields fell. The Treasury sold 13-week bills at an average discount rate of 7.80 percent, down from 7.83 percent last week, and 26-week bills at an average discount rate of 7.80 percent, down from 7.81 percent last week. The investment rate is 8.07 percent for three-month bills and 8.23 percent for the six-month bills.</br></br>COMPANIES Tandem Computers merged with Array Technology, seven months after signing a licensing agreement for its disk storage system. Tandem will obtain Array's disk technology while providing more funding for 15-month-old Array, which becomes a subsidiary of Tandem. Baltimore Gas & Electric's issue of 2 million common shares was priced at $29.50 a share through underwriters led by Shearson Lehman Hutton. Tribune Broadcasting will discontinue its nightly "USA Tonight" newscasts and use Cable News Network coverage on six of its stations under an agreement with Turner Broadcasting System. The 10-year deal also includes joint production of news, documentary specials and entertainment programs. Ames Department Stores will close 74 stores in Massachusetts, Florida, Illinois and Ohio in a desperate attempt to stem the tide of red ink flowing from its acquisition of floundering Zayre stores. Ames also said it will record its first annual loss in the company's 32-year history, about $228 million. USX, in a development that runs counter to widespread worry of an industrial-sector recession, said orders for steel are so heavy they might overwhelm the company's capacity to make and ship its products. Southland Corp., which is involved in a massive financial restructuring, agreed to sell 56 of its 7-Eleven stores in Memphis to MAPCO Petroleum of Tulsa. Terms were not disclosed, but analysts put the value at about $4.5 million. Allstate filed a lawsuit attacking New Jersey's new car insurance law in federal court, contending that the plan to lower rates is unconstitutional because it takes away insurance company profits without due process.</br></br>ACQUISITIONS Learjet Corp. was sold by Integrated Resources to a U.S. subsidiary of Bombardier of Montreal for $75 million. Integrated Resources, citing heavy debt loads, filed for bankruptcy protection Feb. 13. Crestar Financial of Richmond said it would acquire the Community Trust Bank of Portsmouth, Va., in a stock-and-cash deal worth about $2.4 million if the transaction is approved by shareholders and regulators. Warner Bros. signed a distribution agreement with MGM-UA Communications and Pathe Communications, a move that will give Pathe the financing it needs to complete its proposed $1.2 billion buyout of MGM-UA.</br></br>INTERNATIONAL Czechoslovakia and the United States will sign a trade agreement Thursday granting the new democracy most-favored-nation trading status.</br></br>REGULATION Insurance regulators in California rejected a French takeover bid for Farmers insurance companies, jeopardizing the proposed $21 billion buyout of Britain's BAT Industries. BAT owns Farmers Group, and bidder Sir James Goldsmith had proposed to sell Farmers to Axa-Midi Assurances of France upon acquiring BAT. But California regulators said Axa-Midi was putting too little cash into its $4.5 billion offer. Insurers of former asbestos makers suffered a setback when a New Jersey judge ruled that Owens-Illinois's insurance companies must pay as much as $960 million to cover claims against the company.