BRIEFCASE.

Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

StereoVision CEO plans 3-D network

VAN NUYS - Van Nuys-based StereoVision Entertainment Inc. announced plans on Tuesday to develop a 200-theater 3-D network.

``Simply put, SVX TRU 3-D theaters bring amusement-park quality 3-D to your local multiplex,'' said StereoVision's founder and CEO, Jack Honour. ``Gone are the days of the anaglyph red and blue paper glasses.

``With the majors like Disney and Lions Gate now following our lead, the industry is again buzzing about the enormous potential of the commercial exploitation of 3-D entertainment products,'' he said. ``From children's matinees to creature features, 3-D concerts and documentaries, there are a wide variety of commercial applications for our SVX TRU 3-D theaters.''

Honour said the ``enormous grosses at the limited number of IMAX 3-D theaters for feature films such as 'Polar Express 3-D' have garnered the attention of even the most skeptical studio execs. And with the theater operators anxious for solutions to losing huge market share to the DVD home-viewing explosion, they're welcoming the 3-D surge with open arms.''

New Yahoo folder caters to tastes

SUNNYVALE - Looking to gain another edge on its rivals, Internet powerhouse Yahoo Inc. on Wednesday will begin testing a new e-mail folder designed to make it easier for people to track the latest information posted on their favorite Web sites.

The free feature relies on Really Simple Syndication, an increasingly popular technology that can compile content from a wide array of Web sites catering to a user's personal tastes.

Millions of people have signed up to receive automatic feeds on everything from the international news to family recipes since Yahoo first began providing its RSS service last year, said Scott Gatz, the Sunnyvale- based company's senior director of personalization products.

Gold strikes $500 level, falls back

TOKYO - Gold prices broke through the critical threshold of $500 an ounce in Asian trading Tuesday for the first time since late 1987, driven by investor demand for the metal as a diversifying asset. Prices retreated in later trading.

A fourth consecutive day of strong Japanese buying sent gold above the milestone, traders said, bringing the metal's gains to 10 percent in less than four weeks.

Spot gold rose as high as $502.80 per troy ounce in intraday trading before slipping back to settle at $499.20 in New York trading.

Merck notifying workers of layoffs

TRENTON, N.J. - Merck & Co. workers in Georgia, rural Pennsylvania and Canada are among 7,000 employees to be laid off as the struggling drug maker begins a global restructuring that aims to slash costs by cutting jobs and shuttering factories and research facilities.

Merck officials were notifying workers at some of the affected plants Tuesday, a day after the Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based company announced the first phase of a wide-ranging reorganization meant to reduce costs by up to $4 billion by 2010. Merck intends to close or sell five of its 31 manufacturing plants and reduce operations at some others, close one basic research site and two preclinical development sites, and lay off 11 percent of its work force.