DIGEST
Dell Computer said third-quarter profit rose 71 percent, to $248 million, amid surging demand for its business and consumer machines. The Round Rock, Tex.-based company, the largest seller of computers by mail, said sales rose 58 percent, to $3.19 billion, from $2.02 billion. The results surpassed the expectations of financial analysts surveyed by First Call, but were released after the close of financial markets. Before the results, Dell stock fell 4.4 percent, or $3.62 1/2, to $79.75, amid a sharp retreat on the Nasdaq Stock Market.</br></br>Williams Cos. said it agreed to buy Mapco, the biggest U.S. pipeline system moving propane and butane, for $3.4 billion in stock and assumed debt. Williams, one of the largest natural gas pipeline companies in the United States, will give $46.15 in stock for each Mapco share, or 42 percent more than Mapco's average price over the past three months. Williams will pay out $2.65 billion in stock and assume $750 million in debt.</br></br>The Justice Department said it was investigating whether established airlines engaged in predatory airfare pricing by undercutting smaller carriers at some airports. "We are looking at the issue of hub dominance and new entrants in several areas," Assistant Attorney General Joel I. Klein, head of the antitrust division, said in Washington. Klein would not comment on which airlines were under investigation.</br></br>Hollinger International is selling more than 160 newspapers in 11 states, or about 40 percent of its U.S. community newspaper group, to a buyout firm for $310 million. The company, whose newspapers include the Chicago Sun-Times and the Daily Telegraph of London, said the sales to Los Angeles-based Leonard Green & Partners will help pay for its recent acquisition of the Post-Tribune in Gary, Ind.</br></br>Telemundo Group, a Spanish-language television network, is being acquired for about $440 million by investors including financier Leon Black. The investment group consists of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Liberty Media Group, Black's Apollo Management and the investment firm Bastion Capital Fund. Black also is chairman of Telemundo and owns about 35 percent of the Miami-based network, which owns seven stations in the United States and Puerto Rico and sells programming to about 70 affiliates.