COMPANY TOWN ANNEX

Viacom Drops Antitrust Suit Against TCI: Viacom Inc. and Tele-Communications Inc. filed court papers agreeing to dismiss the strongly worded and much-publicized 1993 suit in the wake of TCI’s acquisition of Viacom’s cable systems, and a federal judge approved the dismissal. Details of the agreement were not immediately available. The suit had been mostly dormant for the last 18 months, and company executives had said they expected the suit to be dismissed once TCI’s two-stage $2.3-billion acquisition of Viacom cable systems was completed. That deal closed Wednesday. The suit stemmed from Viacom’s battle to take over Paramount Communications Inc., a battle in which TCI had backed rival bidder QVC Inc.