Also ...

North Fork Bancorp of Melville, N.Y., said it struck a definitive agreement to acquire New York Bancorp, the parent of Home Federal Savings Bank, in a stock-for-stock merger valued at about $800 million. . . . Prodigy Inc. named SBC Communications Inc. executive Samer Salameh as president and chief executive, a month after the company announced plans to split into three divisions. . . . Brazil plans to split state-controlled telephone holding company Telecomunicacoes Brasileiras into three regional parts by Dec. 30 to prepare the company for a planned sale to investors by July 1998. The sale of Telebras, valued at about $40 billion, is expected to be one of the largest state asset sales ever. . . . Prudential Insurance Co. of America said it formed a unit to invest in real estate securities on behalf of its institutional and retail clients. The move comes as pension funds and other institutional investors are increasing their holdings of real estate investment trust, or REIT, stocks as a way to invest in real estate without having to own property. The largest U.S. life insurer hired Robert McConnaughey from Fidelity Investments as managing director of the unit, Prudential Real Estate Securities Investors. . . . Loral Space & Communications Ltd. agreed to buy Orion Network Systems Inc. of Rockville, Md., for about $490 million in stock, expanding the satellite services company overseas for the first time and bolstering its Internet services business. . . . Eastman Kodak Co. plans to reorganize its worldwide film and paper manufacturing operations and reduce inventory as part of its push to generate more profit by cutting costs.