In other business and economic news this past week: _Mobil Corp. said it would sell its Montgomery Ward division for $3.8 billion to an investor group led by Bernard Brennan, the man credited with restoring the 115-year-old department store chain to profitability. _Italian tire manufacturer Pirelli launched a $1.86 billion offer for Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., urging Firestone to scrap a plan to sell 75 percent of its tire-making business to Bridgestone of Japan. _General Electric Co. announced a $423 million offer for Roper Corp., which only last month signed a merger agreement with Whirlpool Corp. _Investor Marvin Davis made an unsolicited $780.3 million offer for loss-plagued Lorimar Telepictures Corp., which had said it was discussing the possibility of being acquired by Warner Communications Inc. _United Artists Communications Inc. and United Cable Television Corp. announced a merger agreement that would produce a concern ranking among the nation's biggest cable companies. _R.H. Macy & Co. Inc. began its $6.1 billion tender offer for Federated Department Stores Inc. and went to court in hopes of torpedoing the competing $6.18 billion offer by Campeau Corp. _Dart Group Corp. abandoned its $1.03 billion takeover bid for Stop & Shop Cos. The chain is to be taken private in a $1.23 billion leveraged buyout. _USG Corp., a leading producer of building materials, urged stockholders to reject a $1.9 billion hostile acquisition offer from a partnership led by two Texas oilmen. _Canadian liquor giant Seagram Co. Ltd. proposed buying orange juice producer Tropicana Products Inc. for $1.2 billion to expand Seagram's share of the beverage market. _Farmers Group Inc., a leading insurer, said its board unanimously rejected a $4.4 billion tender offer from the U.S. subsidiary of Britain's BAT Industries PLC. _Colt Industries Inc., a large defense contractor, accepted a $660 million cash buyout offer from a group led by senior management and a unit of Morgan Stanley Group Inc. _Investor Burt Sugarman said two companies he controls had boosted their stake in Media General Inc. to 10 percent from 9.8 percent and would seek a shareholder vote on his $1.75 billion takeover offer. _Texaco Inc. asked a federal bankruptcy judge to authorize a credit agreement allowing the company to borrow up to $3 billion to finance its Chapter 11 reorganization plan, and Carl C. Icahn threw his support behind the plan. _The Supreme Court handed investors a victory, placing a heavy burden of proof on companies sued for denying they are holding merger negotiations after informal talks have begun. _A federal judge cleared the way for the regional Bell telephone companies to offer certain new computerized information services, including voice storage and electronic mail. _The U.S. Postal Service governors postponed a final decision on the effective date of new postage rates, including an increase in first class to 25 cents. _A federal appellate panel upheld a lower court's finding that there was no evidence General Motors Corp. knowingly sold 1.1 million 1980 X-cars with alleged brake defects. _Ford Motor Co. handed thousands of profit-sharing checks to U.S. workers as their share of the company's industry record profit of $4.6 billion for 1987. _The United Auto Workers union agreed to early contract negotiations with Chrysler Corp. and the two sides soon will set a date for the start of talks. _Cheating on federal income taxes has declined by as much as 20 percent, Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Lawrence B. Gibbs said. _Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III said the Federal Reserve should be independent, but the central bank does not have to be ``totally sheltered from outside advice or criticism.'' _The government said retail sales, boosted by strength in autos, rose 0.6 percent in February, following a January decline. _Wholesale prices fell 0.2 percent in February, pushed downward by drops in both food and energy costs. _A business research company said more than 2.4 million jobs are expected to be created in the United States this year, fewer than the 3 million created in 1987 but ``still a very healthy number.'' _The Federal Reserve said Americans took out $5.42 billion more in installment debt than they paid off in January, the biggest monthly increase in four months and the second strong month in a row.
