COMPANY TOWN ANNEX

HSN to Fire 100 Workers, Reshuffle Management: The television retailer said it will take steps to raise badly needed cash, as it was reporting a fourth-quarter loss far larger than had been expected. These steps, which include layoffs and management changes, are the most sweeping since Barry Diller took over as chairman of the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Home Shopping Network in November with a mission to reinvent the network, whose parent company is Silver King Communications Inc. Diller is credited with building New Corp.’s Fox television network from scratch. Home Shopping lost $25.7 million, for its fourth straight quarterly loss, on falling sales. To raise cash, it is seeking to privately place $100 million in convertible subordinated debentures. The loss, amounting to 28 cents a share, came after pretax charges of $29.3 million. For the year-earlier quarter, Home Shopping had net income of $1.8 million, or 2 cents a share. Operating expenses rose 3%.