COMPUTER ASSOCIATES CONFIRMS GOVERNMENT INQUIRIES.

(Reuters) - Computer Associates International Inc. said Friday it is the subject of two government probes, sending its stock to a seven-year low as the software company lurches from one crisis to the next.

The news of inquiries by the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Securities and Exchange Commission came one day after Computer Associates disclosed it had drawn $600 million from one credit line to pay off another, amid signs that it is having difficulty raising money through the debt markets.

Compounding the company's woes, credit rating agency Standard & Poor's late on Friday cut its outlook on the company's "BBB-plus"-rated debt, an investment grade three notches above "junk" status, to "negative" from "stable."

With investor confidence fragile due to the Enron Corp. scandal and the bankruptcy of telecommunications company Global Crossing Ltd, concerns about Computer Associates' balance sheet weakness and accounting practices have battered its stock. Shares of the world's No. 4 software company have lost about half their value in the past 2 1/2 weeks.

Chief Executive Sanjay Kumar said Friday that the company did not know the specifics of the preliminary investigations.

"We have asked to meet with both organizations," he said. "Obviously, we're still trying to determine the full scope of those inquiries. We'd like to know what's going on."

A former government prosecutor said that the involvement of both the SEC and U.S. Attorney's Office in the inquiries may mean there are civil and criminal concerns.

"Where you have the SEC involved they typically handle the civil, the U.S. Attorney's is likely to be criminal" said Seth Taube, a former head of the SEC's New York investigations bureau and a former assistant U.S. attorney.

COMPANY DENIES ANY INAPPROPRIATE ACCOUNTING

In the past week, the New York newspaper Newsday has reported that the authorities are investigating whether Islandia, New York-based Computer Associates recorded some of its maintenance agreements as software sales in order to boost its recorded revenue.

The newspaper said unnamed sources stressed that the probe was in its early stages and there was no firm evidence that the company did anything illegal.

"We flatly reject insinuations that CA in any way used inappropriate accounting or that such accounting was used to boost our stock price," Kumar said.

Government agency representatives have declined to comment on the reports.

Shares of Computer Associates on Friday fell as low as $14.78, a level unseen since January 1995, before recovering somewhat to close down $2.82, or 15 percent, at $15.99. It was among the top losers on the New York Stock Exchange.

The probes may be embarrassing for some of Computer Associates' board members, who include New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso and former U.S. Senator Alfonse D'Amato.

"It's all a crisis of confidence that's grown out of Enron, Global Crossing and some of these so-called new economy companies," said SoundView Technology Group analyst Jim Mendelson. "CA is not one of those companies."

SEC Insights, a research firm that combs records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, said the company's use of pro-forma, pro-rata accounting, used to compare prior years and which excludes some charges, was a lightening rod for scrutiny. Computer Associates also reports results using generally accepted accounting principles.

"We think the headlines will clearly drive the trading on this name in the short run," SEC Insights said in a report.

"However, CA's GAAP accounting may be cleaner than most companies'," John Gavin, the research firm's president, said.

CREDIT LINE USE RAISES QUESTIONS

On Thursday, the company said it had planned to repay the credit line it had drawn upon with proceeds from a $1 billion planned bond offering. That offering was canceled earlier this month after Moody's Investors Service said it might cut Computer Associates' "Baa1" debt rating, which is equal to S&P's "BBB-plus" rating.

Liquidity concerns at No. 4 U.S. local telephone company Qwest Communications International Inc. and conglomerate Tyco International Ltd. surfaced when they chose to draw down bank credit lines because they couldn't raise money through the sale of short-term debt.

Investors are also watching the commercial paper market -- short term-debt that typically expires in less than 270 days.

Traders wanting to buy Computer Associates' commercial paper on Monday had been seeking yields of 115 basis points, or 1.15 percentage points, over the London Interbank Offered Rate. In contrast, the identically rated commercial paper of Walt Disney Co. late this week yielded only 20 basis points over Libor, a person close to the matter said.

"Right now, nobody has confidence in audited financial statements, or attestations by lawyers or auditors or analysts for that matter," Mendelson said.

So far, the accounting issues have not hurt Computer Associates' business, analysts said.

"The question is ... have (customers) seen any evidence to suggest that this is a company under duress, wheeling and dealing, aggressively trying to close business," Mendelson said, "The hard part on this subject is that all these companies are aggressively trying to close business."

Analysts said there is little risk that Computer Associates would lose existing clients, which include just about all the Fortune 1,000 companies, because the cost of switching software vendors can be prohibitive.

Because of those high costs, "once they're in the network, the client can't change even if they wanted to " said Ahmet Okumus, president of Okumus Capital LLC, a former Computer Associates investor.