LOS ANGELES - One union has begun a first of its kind shareholder fight on the Internet World Wide Web, while BARRA, Morgan Stanley & Co. and a second state retirement fund have announced new Web sites.
The Service Employees International Union has launched a "shareholder alert" on the Web urging Vencor Inc. shareholders to oppose the proposed merger between Hillhaven Corp. and Vencor. Union officials are calling the planned merger a bad deal for Vencor shareholders.
The SEIU issued the alert to ask Vencor shareholders to take a look at the facts before voting on the merger. The Web page is at http: www.seiu.org/hillhaven.
Separately, the consulting firm BARRA Inc. has announced its presence on the Web. The site - http: www.barra.com - includes company information as well as a database of research articles and BARRA predicted betas for the 30 stocks listed in the Dow Jones Industrials.
"Our Web site is a very powerful mechanism for providing information to a global audience," said Kamal Duggirala, president of BARRA, Berkeley, Calif.
Web visitors can also get other kinds of economic information. Morgan Stanley & Co. is offering its Global Economic Forum at http: www.ms.com. The site will include dispatches filed throughout the global business day by the company's team of 14 economists stationed throughout the world.
The $18.8 billion Virginia Retirement System, Richmond, has established a Web site at http: www.virginia.edu/;vaingov/vrs/vrs.html. VRS has had a home page on the Web since April, said Bill Sullivan, a spokesman.
The $1 billion Houston Firemen's Relief and Retirement Fund's recently established its own Web site (Pensions & Investments, Sept. 18).
SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Wilshire Associates is blanketing the country by scheduling luncheons in New York, Chicago and San Francisco to introduce its new version of plan-sponsor-targeted Compass software.
According to officials at the Santa Monica pension consulting firm, the new version of Compass will use Microsoft Access as its database platform. By using Access, users of Compass will find more depth through its Access relational capabilities and will be able to access information more quickly. Previously, Compass used more of a flat file database.
Compass, according to Wilshire officials, provides fund sponsors with a cost-effective way of developing investment policy, building multiple manager teams and evaluating fund performance.
The new version will have improved graphics and reporting capabilities. Hal Reynolds, a vice president at Wilshire, said strategic decisions can explain 95% of a fund's performance. Windows-based software technologies, he added, enhance a sponsor's ability to focus on those decisions.
Wilshire will release the new software Oct. 18 and it expects most of its existing Compass clients to be using it by year end. For further information, contact Joni Clark at Wilshire at (310) 260-6645.
PRINCETON, N.J. - Richard Bednarz, director of sales and marketing for the Depository Trust Co.'s Institutional Delivery System, joined Princeton Financial Systems. In the newly created position of vice president and product manager for trade and settlement processing, Mr. Bednarz will oversee development of systems to facilitate the trading process.
Mr. Bednarz is a 12-year veteran of the DTC and was the DTC's leading spokesman on the reduced trading period T+3. Mr. Bednarz played a major role in the design of the interactive ID system.
Before joining the DTC, Mr. Bednarz held management positions in trust administration and global custody operations at Citibank, New York.
Princeton Financial is a leading supplier of client-server based portfolio management and accounting systems to the institutional investment community.
NEW YORK - Value Line Publishing introduced what company officials say is the first electronic delivery service offering daily options pricing data and valuations at the market opening every trading day, based on the previous day's closing prices. The 8,000 most active exchange-traded options are covered.
EAST NORWALK, Conn. - Woodruff Consulting has created an interactive newsletter and information bank on retirement issues available on the Microsoft Network online service. Information includes congressional activity on retirement issues, surveys and research reports. The service is free to Microsoft Network users.
BLOOMFIELD, Conn. - Securities Software and Consulting Inc. has hired David A. Varsano as vice president of development.
Mr. Varsano, formerly a vice president at Dun & Bradstreet Software, will oversee efforts of SS&C's asset management systems development group.
