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Y2K costs state's firms millions The Associated Press PORTLAND -- The bill for exterminating the Y2K bug at the biggest companies in Oregon has reached about $300 million -- including $110 million for Nike alone -- and now their biggest worry is whether everybody else was as diligent as they were. Fixing the bug: Who spent what in the Northwest The top 25 most costly Y2K readiness projects for public companies in Oregon and southwest Washington, according to their Securities and Exchange Commission filings: 1. Nike, $110 million 2. PacifiCorp, $30 million 3. Fred Meyer, $30 million 4. Portland General Electric, $25 million 5. Stancorp Financial Group, $15 million 6. Sequent Computer Systems, $10 million 7. Willamette Industries, $8.6 million 8. Louisiana-Pacific, $7.8 million 9. Northwest Natural Gas, $7.6 million 10. Flir Systems, $7 million 11. Cascade Corp., $5.8 million 12. Precision Castparts, $5.4 million 13. Mentor Graphics, $4.1 million 14. Barrett Business Services, $3.8 million 15. Pope & Talbot, $3.3 million 16. GST Telecommunications $3.3 million 17. Tektronix, $2.7 million 18. Longview Fibre, $2.6 million 19. Electric Lightwave, $2.3 million 20. Oregon Steel Mills, $2 million 21. Lattice Semiconductor, $2 million 22. Monaco Coach, $1.4 million 23. Lithia Motors, $1.3 million 24. Schnitzer Steel Industries, $1.3 million 25. Greenbrier Cos., $1.2 million The Oregonian analyzed the most recent available reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by 87 publicly held companies based in Oregon and southwest Washington. All of them told the newspaper their most essential systems should be ready to cross over into the next year without significant problems. But most said they were concerned about the Y2K readiness of parties outside their control: customers, suppliers and utilities that provide power and telecommunications. For the past two years, the SEC has required public companies to disclose Y2K information in their quarterly filings, including their Y2K readiness, costs, risks and contingency plans. Most reports included in this analysis were current as of November. Sixty-three of the 87 companies surveyed by The Oregonian estimated total Y2K project costs ranging from $5,000 to $110 million. The remaining 24 companies said their costs were too low to be meaningful. Nearly all of the 87 said they did not expect significant disruptions from Year 2000 computer failures affecting their own businesses or their most important business partners. The remaining companies did not address the question. Many companies pushed their final deadlines right to the wire. December projects, for example, include a new voice-mail system for CenterSpan Communications Corp. and a new security system for Analogy Inc. Lithia Motors, the Medford-based chain of car dealerships, said it would have been completely ready for Y2K, except for the dealerships it bought within the past six months. The biggest spender was Beaverton-based Nike. By the time Nike wraps up its 2-year-old Y2K project, it will have spent between $100 million and $110 million -- a bill it wants its property insurers to pick up, according to a lawsuit now pending in U.S. District Court in Portland. The company that was most confident about readiness was PacifiCorp, the Portland-based electric utility. On July 1, when it wrapped up work on all systems essential to producing electricity, it advanced all the computer clocks in its thermal generating plants and substations to Jan. 1, 2000. As far as those computers are concerned, 2000 already is under way. Portland General Electric, by comparison, stated publicly what many other corporations worry about only in private -- that hidden defects in computer code, inadequate fixes and unpredictable software combinations could trigger some computer failures. Some companies were less than reassuring about their own products, such as FEI Co., which makes electron microscopes. The company stated in its Nov. 16 SEC filing that it "is not certain that it has determined the Year 2000 status of all past products and product configurations." The forest products industry, considered low tech by many, demonstrated that computers play a strong role in today's wood, pulp and paper products industries. Willamette Industries, Louisiana Pacific, Pope & Talbot and Longview Fibre have combined project costs of $22.3 million. All had completed their most crucial projects by Sept. 30, with mop-up scheduled in the fourth quarter. Today's Business Index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA