MORE DIVESTITURES NEEDED IN THEATER MERGER, UNION SAYS

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

Posted for Lars... Jamie

--- NEWS RELEASE ---
Contact:  Lars Negstad                                           
        Research Department
        202-393-4373


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, 4/17/98


MORE DIVESTITURES NEEDED IN THEATER MERGER, UNION SAYS


Antitrust Officials "Did Not Go Far Enough in Protecting the Interests
of Moviegoers"

Washington, DC - Responding to today's news of an agreement with federal
antitrust officials that would require Sony Loews <NYSE: SNE> and
Cineplex Odeon <TOR: CPX> to sell 25 theatres before completing a
planned merger, the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees International
Union will ask regulators to require further divestitures.

The settlement with antitrust regulators requires the two theater
companies to sell-off 25 theaters in New York City and Chicago. The
Union plans to file formal comments calling on regulators to negotiate
divestitures in two additional markets: Houston, TX and suburban
Washington, DC.

In March, the Union publicly opposed the merger in a letter to Justice
Department officials and several state Attorneys General.  Soon
thereafter, the Union met with antitrust investigators at the Justice
Department. The union also established a website about the merger. (See
www.MoviePriceWatch.com)

"While we applaud regulators for forcing sell-offs in New York and
Chicago," union spokesman Lars Negstad said, "the settlement
unfortunately does not address the problems that could result from the
new company's near monopoly in Houston, TX and the Washington,
DC-area."  For example, the company will control over 49% of all movie
screens in the Maryland suburbs of DC.

In addition, Negstad said that "sales of select theaters do not address
the fundamental problem of common ownership among producers,
distributors and exhibitors in the movie industry."

"When consolidation leads to a handful of companies controlling both the
distribution and exhibition of movies," Negstad says, "consumers could
see higher prices and fewer choices."

Negstad pointed out that after the merger is complete, the largest
exhibitor in the country (Loews Cineplex) will be controlled by the
second and sixth largest movie distributors , Sony Pictures
Entertainment and Universal Studios respectively.  

The Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
represents 300,000 workers in the U.S. and Canada. The union does not
represent workers at either Sony Loews or Cineplex Odeon. 


Contact:  Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees International Union
        Lars Negstad, Research Analyst
        202/393-4373

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