Business Notes LAWSUITS

The Home Shopping Network in Clearwater, Fla., has bought into a spree of bad luck. The company, which markets consumer goods on its phone-in TV shows, has made a series of ill-advised acquisitions; its stock price has slipped from a 1987 high of $47 a share to less than $4; and it faces a class-action stockholder lawsuit. Last week came more bad news. A jury in Pinellas County ordered HSN to pay GTE $100 million in libel damages. That is the largest libel award in history.

HSN sued GTE in September 1987, charging that a fouled-up GTE phone system had cost it $388 million in profits. GTE countersued, saying the losses were due to mismanagement and that HSN's press release complaining about GTE's phone service amounted to libel. HSN, arguing that the suit and countersuit should have been tried separately, plans to appeal. Says general counsel Nando DiFilippo: "We are confident that HSN will prevail."