Announced Actions for September 6, 1996

Applications for prior approval of transactions: The FTC has received applications for prior approval of transactions from the following. The applications will be subject to public comment for 30 days, until Oct. 7.

• Compagnie de Saint-Gobain and its subsidiary, The Carborundum Company, of Worcester, Massachusetts, have applied for FTC approval to grant a perpetual license for proprietary Carborundum technology used in the production of Silicon Carbide Refractory Bricks to New Castle Refractories Company, of New Castle, Pennsylvania. Under the licensing agreement, Carborundum will provide New Castle the option to purchase certain manufacturing equipment and will supply New Castle for resale with brick products produced at Carborundum’s Keasbey, New Jersey, facility. The licensing is one of several requirements in a consent agreement Saint-Gobain signed to settle FTC charges that its acquisition of Carborun dum violated antitrust laws by substantially reducing competition in markets for three products used in industrial furnaces and home appliances. (A petition to modify the order is pending at the FTC -- see Aug. 6, 1996 news advisory from the FTC. See also Feb. 26, 1996 news release for additional information about the consent agreement; Docket No. C-3673.)

• Revco, D.S., Inc., of Twinsburg, Ohio, has asked the FTC to approve divestiture of the Revco drug stores in Marion and Covington, Virginia, to Horizon Pharmacies, Inc., of McKinney, Texas. Divestiture of the pharmacy business at these stores is required under a November 1994 consent order settling charges that Revco’s acquisition of Hook-SupeRx, Inc. would violate antitrust laws by substantially reducing competition for prescription drugs sold in retail stores in Covington, Marion and Radford, Virginia. In February 1996, the FTC appointed a trustee to divest the Marion and Covington Revco stores’ pharmacy businesses, because the deadline under the order for completion of the divestitures had passed. The order is designed to restore competition for prescription drugs sold in retail outlets in the areas at issue. (See Nov. 4, 1994 and Feb. 8, 1996 news releases regarding this matter; Docket No. C-3540.)

Comments on the applications should be addressed to the FTC, Office of the Secretary, 6th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580. Copies of the documents referenced above are available from the FTC’s Public Reference Branch, Room 130, at the same address; 202-326-2222; TTY for the hearing impaired 1-866-653-4261. To find out the latest news as it is announced, call the FTC NewsPhone recording at 202- 326-2710. FTC news releases and other materials also are available on the Internet at the FTC’s World Wide Web site at: http://www.ftc.gov