OTHER NEWS - Feb. 15, 1996

Gibson Greetings Fires CEO: The nation’s No. 3 seller of greeting cards fired its chairman and chief executive and said it is no longer for sale. Gibson Greetings Inc. said Benjamin J. Sottile will no longer head the Cincinnati-based company. Albert R. Pezzillo, chairman of Gibson’s executive committee, was named interim chairman and CEO while the company searches for a successor. Gibson has started to turn around after falling into a financial morass in 1994 because of losses from its investments in derivatives. The company earned $7.8 million, or 49 cents a share, on revenue of $198.7 million in the final quarter of 1995. That contrasts with a loss of $1.2 million, or 7 cents a share, on revenue of $211.7 million in the same period the year before.