Digest
Hechinger's stock jumped 24 percent, closing at $5.75 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, in response to speculation that the Landover-based home building supply chain will be acquired by Sears. Hechinger said it did not know why its stock was up; both companies said they could not comment on the rumors.</br></br>Netscape Communications posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings, crediting strong demand for its Navigator software for browsing the Internet. The Mountain View, Calif., company earned $2.36 million, compared with a $7.46 million loss a year ago. Revenue rose to $40.6 million from $1.18 million. For the full year, it lost $3.4 million, compared with a loss of $11.9 million in 1994.</br></br>Black Entertainment Television of the District will announce today an agreement with Microsoft to provide information for and about African Americans to Microsoft's on-line network, a BET executive said. The agreement gives BET, primarily a cable TV programmer, another media outlet for distributing news and entertainment.</br></br>Ford's fourth-quarter profit fell 58 percent, to $660 million. For the year, earnings fell 22 percent, to $4.1 billion. The automaker was hurt by heavy new product spending in North America and losses in Europe and Brazil. Ford said it was in for two tough quarters before new cars and truck sales improve its bottom line in the second half of 1996.</br></br>IBM agreed to pay $743 million for Tivoli Systems, a mid-sized software firm that helps big operations switch from mainframes to networks of smaller computers. IBM said it would pay $47.50 per share, 26 percent above Tivoli's closing price of $37.75 Tuesday. Tivoli's stock rose $9.28 1/8 to $47.03 1/8 yesterday on the Nasdaq Stock Market.