THE TICKER

BEER AND MORE: Japan's Kirin Brewery Co. Ltd. said Monday it hadagreed with Amgen Inc. of the United States to jointly sell two typesof drugs in China with expected annual turnover of $6.8 million. Thediversified brewer and the U.S. pharmaceutical firm are to sellmultipliers of red blood cells and white blood corpuscles, the formerfor anemia treatment and the latter for cancer treatment and bonemarrow transfers. TDS EXPANDS: Telephone & Data Systems Inc. has reached agreements toacquire Ohio-based Value Telephone Co. and a majority of the commonstock of Tennessee-based Millington Telephone Co. The acquisitionsare subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. Value servesroughly 700 telephone access lines within its exchange area.Millington provides service to approximately 21,000 access lines inporitions of southwest Tennessee. With the acquisitions,Chicago-based TDS will operate 95 telephone companies in 29 states. CD CONTROVERSY COOLS: Facing lawsuits from angry merchants,recording industry company Warner Elektra Atlantic Corp. said Mondayit was reversing a ban on advertising support for stores that sellused compact discs. While the company said it would resume providingadvertising support to such outlets, it will not permit any of themoney to be used for ads promoting used CDs. Warner ElektraAtlantic, a unit of media conglomerate Time-Warner Inc., owns therecord labels of the same names. SHIP SHIFT: Carnival Corp. said Monday it has agreed to exchange itsinterest in the cruise ship Mardi Gras for a small equity interest inEpirotiki Lines, the largest cruise operator in the Mediterranean.The deal revises Carnival's previously announced agreement to form anew company with Epirotiki and Dolphin Cruise Line, Carnival said.The Mardi Gras will sail to Greece next month, where it will undergoa refurbishment prior to joining the Epirotiki fleet as the Olympicin 1994. HMO MERGER: Two health maintenance organizations, QualMed Inc. andHN Management Holdings Co. Inc., agreed to merge Monday and create agroup providing medical care for 1.25 million people in seven westernstates. Analysts said the merger will extend Qualmed's reach intoCalifornia, adding over 900,000 Health Net clients in a state whereit now operates only in northern markets. COSTLIER GAS: The U.S. petroleum industry expects to pass on costsof up to 16 cents more for a gallon of fuel by the year 2000 to payfor stricter environmental regulations, a study released Monday says.The National Petroleum Council, a group that advises the governmentand counts many industry executives among its members, saidregulations that would force the industry to be cleaner would cost$37 billion, in 1990 dollars, to meet requirements from 1991 to 2000. CORRECTION: A photo caption in Monday's Sun-Times incorrectlyidentified a Foote, Cone and Belding executive. He is Doug Belzer, the agency'ssenior vice president of operations. A headline in the same editionincorrectly identified the subject of a new Foote, Cone ad. It isthe environmental group Earth Share.