MEDIA

General Cinema Wraps Up Harcourt Purchase: The Chestnut Hill, Mass.-theater chain operator completed its $1.5-billion takeover of the Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc. publishing company. Holders of Harcourt common and preferred shares will receive 0.0395 General Cinema Class B and common shares for each Harcourt share they hold. Orlando, Fla.-based Harcourt, a textbook and trade book publisher, had been saddled with $1.9 billion in debt from a 1987 battle to repel a takeover attempt by the late publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell.