BAIRD FAMILY GROUP BUYS 10% STAKE IN BALDWIN.

THE BAIRD FAMILY of Buffalo, New York, acquired a ten percent stake in Baldwin Piano and Organ Co. and said it may seek representation on the company's board. The family paid $2.81 million to purchase 342,000 common shares as an investment, according to a Schedule 13D filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That works out to $8.22 a share. Baldwin shares have fallen more than 14 percent this year.

"It just seemed like a reasonably cheap stock," said Brent Baird, a member of the shareholding group, who describes himself as a private investor. According to the filing, the group may ask at a later date that Brent Baird be named to the board. The investment group includes the Cameron Baird Foundation, a charitable organization that holds 145,000 shares. Other members of the group are Jane Baird, a homemaker; Bruce Baird, president of the local Belmont Management Co.; and Bridget Baird, a professor at Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut.

The Baird fortune dates to 1888, when Frank Burkett Baird launched a steel-business in Buffalo. The family went on to operate a number of furnaces that manufactured iron and steel, a primary product of western New York until the early 1970s.

In recent years the Bairds have bought stakes in companies such as Ecology and Environment Inc. and Allied Healthcare Products Inc., according to regulatory filings.