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The proposed merger of Tele-Communications Inc (TCI) with Bell Atlantic Corp is likely to result in a clash between two vastly different corporate cultures. While TCI has grown to be the biggest cable operator in the United States by being a highly entrepreneurial and cost-cutting competitor, Bell Atlantic bears the vestiges of its past as a highly regulated monopoly utility. Executives from both firms could well disagree on the pace of decision making, cost cutting, conflict resolution and customer service. TCI chief executive John Malone, who would be vice chairman of the merged firm, and Bell Atlantic;s Raymond W. Smith, who would be CEO and chairman of the new entity, might also butt heads. One consultant warns both firms to take care lest the cultural clash derail the merger.

IBM's contract with its new chairman, Louis V. Gerstner, Jr, guarantees a price of $8.125 for much of Gerstner's RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp stock. RJR's stock closed at $5.625 on May 25, 1993, which means IBM would owe $8.8 million to Gerstner if he collected now. IBM did not reveal this guarantee when the company told its shareholders about Gerstner's compensation agreements, which include a $2 million salary, a $1.5 million bonus option for 500,000 shares and about $5 million in payment for benefits Gerstner gave up when he came to IBM. Industry observer Brian Foley characterizes Gerstner's compensation arrangement as an exceptionally large package that involves less financial risk than had originally been suggested.

People close to the IBM search for a new chairman and chief executive officer say the positions were offered to RJR Nabisco Holdings Chmn Louis V. Gerstner Jr only after final talks with two other candidates broke down. The identity of one of the candidates is not known; the other, AlliedSignal Chmn Lawrence Bossidy, was reportedly concerned that the size of his compensation package would create an immediate public-relations problem for IBM. IBM apparently turned to Gerstner after terminating discussions with Bossidy and the other candidate, then hired public-relations help to help depict Gerstner as the number one choice all along. IBM claims to have made only one job offer, but used executive recruiters, who can feel out a candidate in great detail before a formal offer is made.

IBM's decision to hire two rival executive-search companies to help it find a new chief executive may end a long-standing US business practice. The rules of the Assn of Executive Recruiter Consultants calls for a executive-search company that gets a contract with a firm to regard that firm's executives as off-limits for two years. For years, many US firms have employed different executive searchers in order to get on as many off-limits lists as possible. IBM's decision to hire two executive-search companies, SpencerStuart and Heldrick and Struggles Inc, means that one can recruit executives from a firm that is off-limits to the other. Companies are now worrying that IBM's new strategy will make it easier for their own executives to be recruited away.

A survey by Economic and Management Consultants International indicates that average monthly revenues for paging companies are falling on a year-to-year basis, and subscriber growth rates are slowing. Revenue for phone-number display devices fell 18 percent between 1987 and 1990, while revenue for beep-only devices fell 29 percent for that same period. Subscription growth rates fell from 35 percent in the 1970s and are projected to fall between eight and fifteen percent during the 1990s. Several paging companies view the cellular telephone industry as posing the greatest threat to their business and are exploring ways to offer more services, including voice mail and alphanumeric paging which would allow customers to both send and receive messages.

Technological advances in the telecommunication industry, including the introduction of wrist phones, personal telephone numbers and picture telephones, will change the way society conducts itself. Voice-recognition technology may make it possible for users to verbally command a telephone to dial up a number, hang up or redial, making it safer for car phone users; voice recognition can be personalized to protect against unauthorized use. Picture telephones will require fiber optics to function properly and telephone companies reconsider introducing the technology after it failed in the 1960s because of inadequate equipment. Some observers foresee the time when personalized telephone numbers will be assigned like social security numbers; a number that stays with a person for life.

Nynex Corp's New York Telephone unit is the target of an investigation into bribery and bid-rigging for building maintenance operations. New York state regulators says that between 50 and 80 present and former employees are under investigation. Nynex reports that at least 15 employees have already left the company: two were fired and 13 resigned or retired. The investigation has already uncovered a contract scheme where a $6 million contract was awarded in exchange for kickbacks totaling $600,000. The Nynex telephone unit has recently requested an $832 million rate increase from the New York state Public Service Commission, but a panel of three administrative law judges recommends only $23.6 million.