Business News

New York — The Sony brand name was tapped as the "best" this year in a Harris Interactive consumer survey of brands. Sony was followed by Dell, Ford, Kraft, Coca-Cola, General Electric and Pepsi-Cola. The Harris poll reflects the results of an online survey of 2,050 adults in the United States conducted between June 20 and June 26, 2002. The survey asked respondents to name the three brands they considered the best. Dell, which finished second, failed to make the top 10 last year, and occupied the No. 5 slot in 2000. This is the third consecutive year Sony has been in the No. 1 spot and the fifth time in the last eight years that it has topped the list. Harris Poll began measuring "best brands" in 1995 and Sony has been named No. 1 one five times (1996, 1998, 2000, 2001 and 2002). In other Sony news, the company's stock rebounded 4.3 percent last Thursday after falling 4.1 percent the previous day after questions were raised in a story in Hong Kong's South China Morning Post about its accounting practices, according to The Wall Street Journal Online. The Hong Kong report quoted a U.S. analyst, who saw "potential problems" about a 133 percent increase in sales to its mobile phone joint venture with Ericsson, started last fall. The Web report said Sony booked those sales for the fiscal year ended March 31. Sony, which strongly disputed the report, was quoted as saying that the 133 percent sales jump was mostly from mobile phones that it sells for cash to the joint venture.

Ridgefield Park, N.J. — Samsung has received five Industrial Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) for 2002 from the Industrial Designers Society of America. Award-winning designs include a Gold award for the SyncMaster 241MP TFT-LCD Monitor and a Silver award for the DVD-L100 Portable DVD Player. The five winning designs helped Samsung tie Apple Computer for earning the most IDEA awards among corporations this year. Samsung also is tied with Apple for first place overall, having won a total of 17 awards since 1998.

Itasca, Ill.— Accessories maker Fellowes has signed an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement to manufacture, market, sell and distribute wired ear sets from San Jose, Calif.-based SyberSay Communications under Fellowes' Body Glove brand. Fellowes will start with the SyberSay 225 cellphone accessory, marketed as the Earglove Sport, and the high quality SyberSay 545 ear set, distributed as the Earglove Pro.

Park Ridge, N.J. — Sony Electronics has acquired the 49 percent equity stake in Sony Financial Services held by Heller Financial, a wholly owned subsidiary of GE Capital. Sony Financial Services was established jointly by Sony Electronics and Heller Financial in December 1999. Sony Electronics, through its wholly owned subsidiary, SFS Holding, has assumed complete ownership of the business as a result of its acquisition of Heller's interest. Sony Financial Service provides consumer and commercial financing programs to purchasers of Sony products.