Corporations pledge $100 m aid

SAN FRANCISCO: Major corporations, including some that called the now-toppled

World Trade Center home, pledged millions more for relief efforts on Friday,

taking the tally for such donations to more than $100 million since Tuesday's

devastating attacks.

Howard Lutnick, chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald, the brokerage believed to have

lost all of the roughly 700 employees who worked in the World Trade Center's

north tower, donated $1 million to a fund to help victims' families. Other

corporations large and small continued to pledge millions to relief efforts,

with the total based on announced pledges alone topping $100 million by Friday.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., the largest tenant in the World Trade

Center with 3,700 employees in the complex, said it will give $10 million to

relief groups. The investment bank on Thursday said it was missing only 15

staff. Oil company Exxon Mobil Corp., said would give up to $20 million in

individual and corporate matching contributions.

The company will make an immediate $5 million donation to agencies and

charitable groups assisting families of those killed and injured in New York and

the Pentagon. General Electric Co. on Wednesday offered $10 million to New York

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to help the families of New York emergency workers

presumed dead.

Drugmaker Merck & Co. on Friday pledged $5 million to help victims, their

families and emergency groups. Energy marketing and trading powerhouse Enron

Corp. also said it will donate $1 million toward relief efforts.

Utility holding companies Entergy Corp. and Exelon Corp. each donated

$500,000 to launch The Power of America Fund, which has hopes of raising $10

million to aid children who lost a parent in the attacks.

Offshore companies also have offered help. Deutsche Bank AG, Germany's

largest bank, said on Friday it committed $4 million to aid in relief efforts. A

number of corporations across various industries also have been pledged material

support to relief efforts.

The Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance, which includes Cisco Systems

Inc., is offering to set up local wireless Internet access networks for agencies

involved in relief efforts and any businesses that have been relocated.

"However, our greatest challenge is determining who would benefit from this

offer and finding out how to contact them," the industry group said in an

e-mail.

Meanwhile, the American Red Cross in New York said it was in dire need of

equipment and services. According to a Red Cross official there, field and

rescue workers have few means of communication for coordinating efforts.

Software company SAP AG on Friday said it would offer consulting services free

of charge to help restore information-technology infrastructure of businesses

and agencies affected by Tuesday's attacks.

SAP also has said it will donate $3 million to support individuals harmed on

Tuesday as well as families of victims. Other material has moved quickly into

disaster areas.

McDonald's Corp., the world's largest restaurant company, said that through

Friday it had donated more than 70,000 meals to firemen, police and other relief

workers at the so-called Ground Zero rescue site in lower Manhattan, where the

New World Trade Center stood until Tuesday's disaster.

Earlier this week, McDonald's gave $1 million to relief efforts and $1

million to its charity, Ronald McDonald House.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001