Eckstein Firm Goes Public, Forecasts Higher Profit

A helicopter from WEEI radio delivered "Leonard Bernstein" to Soldiers Field during Saturday's half-time show to lead a group of Harvard-Radcliffe musicians in a barely audible piece of classical music. The helicopter's landing provided the only note of concord between the rival sides all afternoon.

Data Resources Inc. (DRI), the economic forecasting firm founded by Otto Eckstein, Warburg Professor of Economics, plans to sell shares to the general public soon, following record profits in the first half of this year.

Eckstein said yesterday the sale of stock, originally announced in late August, was postponed until the election Tuesday because of a drop in the stock market at the time of the announcement.

"All we really require is the market to not sink," he said.

Eckstein and his family, who own nearly 20 per cent of DRI stock, will not be selling their holdings. "Maybe I'm very stupid, but I'm sitting on my shares in DRI," Eckstein said.

"I believe we can go a lot further," he said. "We are the only company that's put together a complete econometric information system, combining econometrics as taught at Harvard with our own computer networks."

Eckstein said he plans to continue teaching part-time at Harvard and to remain president of DRI, although he acknowledged "questions as to whether it is possible to combine teaching with directing the firm,"

DRI announced in August that profits for the first half of 1976 were $618,000. Profits for all of 1975 were $884,000.

The company plans to sell 132,500 shares, for a total of nearly $2 million, a prospectus released by DRI states.