The management team seeking to buy Prodigy Services Co from IBM Corp and Sears Roebuck & Co is close to reaching a deal which is said to be imminent, sources told Reuter. A Prodigy source confirmed to Computergram that negotiations are drawing to an end and that speculated prices – which have ranged from as little as $100m to more than $250m – are lower than the actual figures on the table. It is still unclear how the deal will be structured, and whether the existing holders will retain any residual stake. I have heard no denials coming from very high-placed Prodigy executives that a deal could be done as early as Friday, said Adam Schoenfeld, a vice president at Jupiter Communications Co, a market research firm in New York. Gary Arlen, president of Arlen Communications Inc in Bethesda, Maryland, said he recently heard a price of under $100m being bandied about by industry contacts.
