BRIEFCASE MGM TO BUY BACK SHARES AS THEY FALL.

Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

SANTA MONICA - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. will repurchase up to 10 million shares of its stock, which has fallen 55 percent from its high earlier this year, the company said Friday.

The price of MGM shares has dropped on the weakness of such box office disappointments as ``Rollerball'' and ``Windtalkers.''

Shares reached $22.27 in January but were selling for around $10 on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Earlier this month, Tracinda Corp., the investment company owned by billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, said it would purchase up to 10 million MGM shares. Kerkorian owns 77 percent of MGM.

Acquisition final on Dick Clark firm

BURBANK - Dick Clark Productions announced Friday that its acquisition by a group of investors has been completed.

CDP Capital Communications; Mosaic Media Group Inc.; the Claridge/Andell investment group; Jules Haimovitz, a senior television executive; and Henry Winterstern, co-founder and managing partner of CDP Capital Entertainment, through DCPI Investco Inc. acquired all of the outstanding shares of Dick Clark Productions for an aggregate merger consideration of approximately $136 million.

As a result of the merger, the company is no longer a publicly traded corporation.

Dick Clark Productions will continue to operate as an independent television production company with Dick Clark continuing to serve as the chairman and chief executive officer.

Norplant will not return to market

TRENTON, N.J. - Nearly two years after Wyeth pulled its implantable birth control device Norplant from the market amid concerns that some lots might not be effective, the pharmaceutical company has decided not to resume sales.

That's despite Wyeth's announcement Friday that further tests in the laboratory and on women using the five-year implant show the lots in question were working as intended and women no longer needed to use a backup birth control method.

Company spokeswoman Natalie de Vane said it was ``a business decision'' not to bring Norplant back to the market because of limited supply of some of its ingredients. She would not elaborate.

Large-item orders down 3.8 percent

WASHINGTON - Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket goods, including cars and computers, fell in June by the largest amount in seven months, raising fears that the stock market doldrums may be causing Americans to rein in spending and slow the recovery.

Economists were rattled by a Commerce Department report Thursday showing that orders for costly manufactured ``durable'' goods dropped by 3.8 percent in June from the previous month. Many economists were predicting an increase in bookings. The weakness was widespread.

The decline in orders, along with a 1.4 percent drop in shipments - a good barometer of current demand - was viewed by economists as an ominous sign that businesses, battered by the sour stock market, may be growing even more uncertain about the economy's recovery.

New Tyco chief's toughness noted

CONCORD, N.H. - Investors are banking on Edward D. Breen's take- no-prisoners style to clean house at Tyco International Ltd. and right what for many months has seemed like a sinking ship.

Analysts and large shareholders point to the way Breen cut costs at Motorola Inc. and made the company more efficient, and say Tyco can expect big changes under his leadership.

Breen, 46, replaces Dennis Kozlowski at the helm of the conglomerate that makes products ranging from steel fence posts to undersea fiber-optic cable. He resigned from Motorola on Thursday and takes over at Tyco on Monday.

Tyco, based in Bermuda but run from Exeter, N.H., has been dogged since January by questions about its accounting and investigations involving several top officers.