Also. . .

* President Clinton said he intends to nominate Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt to another term. Levitt, whose five-year term expires in June, has championed the interests of small investors.

* Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. said it expects first-quarter profit to exceed analyst expectations. The world’s largest health-care company, which has been reorganizing since it became the subject of an investigation into Medicare fraud 18 months ago, said profit from continuing operations should reach 30 cents to 35 cents a diluted share, compared with average estimates of 14 cents.

* Learning Co., a Fremont-based publisher of educational computer software, agreed to buy rival Mindscape Inc. from Britain’s Pearson for $150 million in cash and stock. Mindscape, which publishes such software titles as Chessmaster 5500 and the Complete National Geographic Collection, had revenue of about $130 million last year.

* The managers of the Kaufmann Fund are in discussions to sell control of their mutual fund, two people familiar with the talks told Bloomberg News. The Kaufmann Fund has about $6.1 billion in assets. The managers, Lawrence Auriana, and Hans Utsch, 61, weren’t available for comment.

* Philip Morris Cos. said its share of the U.S. cigarette market rose 1.2 percentage points to 48.9% in 1997 even as health-related lawsuits against the company proliferated. The maker of Marlboro cigarettes estimated its share of overseas tobacco sales rose to 13.6% from 12.8%.