Layoffs, Y2K Bugs and Costly Smokes

What people, companies, trends, ideas, gizmos, products and places will capture our attention in the year ahead?

Champagne will definitely be in. Likewise, the euro and e-commerce. But National Basketball Assn. action figurines? Out. And anybody working for Edgar Bronfman Jr.? Out. Remember, you were warned.

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Most Obnoxious Marketing Hook: Millennium shmillennium. There are the ubiquitous countdown clocks, the T-shirts, the wine glasses, the official champagne, the coffee cups, the mouse pads, the baseball caps, the toys, the movies, the golf balls and “1999” (the song by the erstwhile Prince, which will be played ad nauseam throughout the year). . . . Meanwhile, nit-pickers will argue that the millennium doesn’t really start for two years, no matter what the party hucksters say. Wake us when it’s over.

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Biggest Growth Industry: Party planners. Since we’ll all be whipped into a celebratory frenzy from a year of millennium marketing, someone has got to arrange all those Parties of the Century. BYOB and cheese from Trader Joe’s isn’t gonna cut it on 12/31/99.

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Second-Biggest Growth Industry: Y2K consultants. These folks are everywhere these days, making sure the world is safe for those Jan. 1, 2000, ATM withdrawals. To be sure, life as we know it could freeze like a bum hard drive if the Y2K problem is not properly addressed. But that’s what they’re paying the Y2K police moderate bucks to worry about, right?

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If You Build It, They Will Build: Legoland California, a $130-million homage to little plastic toy bricks, is scheduled to open in Carlsbad in March. It, like sister parks in Denmark and Britain, will feature the kind of slow-speed Lego-centric rides that appeal to families that buy Legos. In fact, this gentler pace is what Legoland hopes to use to advantage over the bigger thrills of Disneyland and its ilk. Guess there’s not much doubt what the gift shops will be featuring.

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Best Bad Pun Potential: The euro. We know that Europe’s new currency is extremely important and way more interesting than, say, the yen. It will simplify international business and make those quickie jaunts to the Continent terribly convenient. But it fits so nicely in bad headlines and silly jokes. Example: What do you call someone who studies the euro? A eurologist.

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Hot Wheeling Award: The new Honda S2000 Roadster. Some 5,000 of Honda’s new entry into the sports car convertible category are slated for the United States. With two seats, rear-wheel drive, daring styling and surprising power, the S2000 is so cute it makes you want to pinch its little cheeks. But will it be as coveted as the original Miata?

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Surviving Barbie’s Bad Hair Days: Jill Barad, the Mistress of Mattel (also chairman and CEO), faces a year that will be anything but fun and games. Barad must overcome slumping sales of Barbie, the wonderdoll that has powered Mattel Inc. to the top of the toy ranks, and inventory slashing by toy retailers. And she must pull off the integration of Learning Co., an educational-software company, which Mattel recently agreed to buy.

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From the Careful-What-You-Wish-For File: Certified public accountants rushed to embrace commissions--just as other financial service providers caught on to how much the public hates them. Some CPAs, who, as of Jan. 1, will be able to profit from peddling investments, worry that the rules will poison their reputation for integrity and objectivity.

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Groundbreaking as Theater: Playa Vista. This proposed $250-million studio and headquarters for DreamWorks SKG is scheduled to finally break ground in 1999 after three years of squabbling and financing problems. If that first shovelful of dirt ever flies, look for a development boomlet nearby in the neighborhood that some are touting as “the Lower Westside.”

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Aural Gratification? Or Theater as Theater? Walt Disney Concert Hall. The money continues to dribble in to start construction on this hoped-for landmark future home of the L.A. Philharmonic. Will backers ever reach their $205-million goal? Stay tuned.

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Most Glam Make-Over: Hollywood redevelopment redux. Some long-awaited projects will be completed in 1999, including the Metro Red Line’s Hollywood subway station, which opens in May. Several well-known buildings are changing hands in anticipation of new life on the streets, and not the kind that Hollywood has been used to.

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Biggest Source of Math Anxiety: New area codes. Californians are getting a bunch more of them in 1999, or will be forced to finally remember some that were introduced in 1998. There’s 323, 661, 831 and 559. And the state’s first “overlay” area code, 424. If any of those area codes look like something from a foreign country to you, it’s time to study your phone book.

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Highest-Mileage Retail Rivalry: AutoNation vs. CarMax. The two used-car retailers both plan to open outlets in Southern California. Car Wars, anyone?

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May the Hype Be With You: The two-minute trailer for “Star Wars: Episode I--The Phantom Menace” was enough to set George Lucas devotees--and millions of other movie lovers--salivating. Come May, all eyes will be on Anakin Skywalker, Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu and Jar Jar. Assuming no Y2K-induced apocalypse, this prequel will raise the bar on blockbusters.

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Does That Stand for Multiple Pirating? Popping up all over will be Diamond Multimedia’s Rio MP3 player, a palm-size gadget that can download and play back pirated songs from the Internet. It sells for less than $200. Hmmmm, this sure beats a boom box.

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Scariest Retail Project: Microsoft’s first store. Scheduled to open in mid-1999 at Sony’s Metreon retail development in San Francisco, the store, to be called Microsoft SF, will feature all manner of Microsoft products and logo merchandise. If we’re really lucky, they’ll put a Starbucks next door.

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I’ll Hoffa, and I’ll Poffa . . . As incoming president of the powerful and corruption-plagued Teamsters, husky James P. Hoffa will be watched warily. Hoffa campaigned as a reformer. But will he give too much leeway to local bosses, enabling them to run their organizations like fiefdoms? After all, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

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Is Aetna Being Prudent? Aetna’s first big gulp was U.S. Healthcare, a managed-care takeover that proved disastrous for patients and doctors because of administrative foul-ups. Now Aetna wants to gobble up Prudential Insurance Co. of America’s ailing health-care operations. This combined behemoth will strike fear in the hearts and pocketbooks of the nation’s doctors and could make life miserable again for patients if cultures and computer systems collide. Maybe Aetna should have sought a second opinion.

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Give Us Benefits, or We’ll Infect Your Computers With the Y2K Virus: Contingent workers (temporary employees and independent contractors) are mad and they’re not going to take it anymore. They want benefits, and the Labor Department is seeking to force more companies to oblige.

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Executive in the Spotlight: It seems nobody can hold a job in the regime of Edgar Bronfman Jr., the Seagram chief who wants to run the show himself at Universal Studios. Even Universal Studios President Ron Meyer, his second-in-command, is expected to leave before next year-end. Watch for further uproar at this once great entertainment company.

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EarthLink to Sky: ‘Sky’s the Limit’: EarthLink Network, headed by Sky Dayton, chairman and founder, and Chief Executive Garry Betty, is poised in 1999 to pass AT&T; WorldNet to become the nation’s largest pure Internet service provider. America Online, with 14 million members, is still about 14 times as big.

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A Tax-Dodgers’ Dream Investment: Cable mogul John Malone will be sitting on a mountain of money if AT&T;’s $34-billion purchase of Tele-Communications Inc. is completed as expected in March. Part of the transaction calls for AT&T; to pay Liberty Media, Malone’s cable programming empire, about $5.5 billion in cash, tax-free. Because of its esoteric structure, Liberty will remain in Malone’s control, but will technically be part of AT&T;, whose balance sheet could bring the unit’s borrowing power to about $20 billion. Malone says he’ll invest in capital-intensive businesses, perhaps Internet plays, that will generate losses and offset AT&T;’s tax bill. That is because AT&T; has agreed to pay Liberty for tax savings generated. But perhaps Malone could apply his ingenuity to the troubled network television business. NBC and CBS are both looking for partners. And at least one of them will generate a loss next year.

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Nota Bene, Calista Flockhart: Our fashion mavens tell us that short skirts are out. Flats are in. By extension, that will mean that chiropractors will be getting less business.

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Product With Best Sticker-Shock Potential: Cigarettes. Take a 50-cent-per-pack tax increase approved by California voters in November and wrap it around the recent 45-cent-per-pack price hike by major cigarette manufacturers to cover the costs of the $206-billion tobacco settlement. Makes quitting look like financial planning.

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Sneakiest Downsizing Trick: The layoffs will continue . . . and continue . . . and continue. But instead of lopping off large numbers of workers, corporations will make small but regular layoffs--like calculated amputations. The goal is to avoid bad publicity. Remember AT&T;’s job carnage in 1996? Of course you do. We rest our case.

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Bin There, Done That: Travelers will feel the full brunt of the airline industry’s carry-on crackdown. New rules and plastic gates at terminal X-ray machines are already dividing passengers between those who are thrilled that abusers won’t be able to stuff excessive bags, backpacks and other gear into the overhead bins, and those who now feel like smugglers trying to get their luggage on board. That’s not all. Now luggage makers are rushing to redesign their products to meet the new standards.

Here’s wishing you a spine-tingling year.

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Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Mimi Avins, Robert Beamesderfer, Sharon Bernstein, Elizabeth Douglass, Melinda Fulmer, Sallie Hofmeister, Karen Kaplan, Myron Levin, Davan Maharaj, James F. Peltz, Chuck Philips, Liz Pulliam, Jesus Sanchez, Edward Silver and Stuart Silverstein.