COMPANY TOWN ANNEX

Nasdaq Denies Report of SEC Questioning on QVC: Officials of the over-the-counter stock market and QVC Network Inc. downplayed the report that Securities and Exchange Commission regulators sought information about a halt in the trading of QVC’s stock last week. The halt came shortly before the home shopping company and Paramount Communications Inc. announced their planned merger. The Wall Street Journal quoted an unidentified source as saying that SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt asked for information about the pause in trading. Nasdaq spokesman Bob Ferri said that is not true, but he acknowledged a routine contact between the SEC and Nasdaq over the QVC halt: “Someone at the staff level there (at the SEC) was talking to someone at the staff level here, fairly briefly.”