Victoria and Western Australia were the leading bidders for the license, and it eventually allocated to Western Australia, creating the Western Force.

The leading bidders are the Ford Motor Company, which owns the First Nationwide Bank, and a group led by William E. Simon, the former Treasury Secretary.

Two publishers, Bernarr Macfadden and B. A. MacKinnon were the leading bidders.

Though bids for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. were due yesterday at 11:30 A.M., it was not clear whether Polygram Holdings, considered a leading bidder, had actually put in an offer.

Thyssen AG and Preussag of Germany were the leading bidders.

And the firm is part of a group that appears to be a leading bidder for Freedom Communications, one of the last major privately controlled newspaper companies in the nation.

The leading bidder is said to be Joe Mansueto, the chief executive of Morningstar, the mutual fund research company in Chicago.

After becoming a dominant figure in Mexico's securities markets in the 1980s, Mr. Hernández, now 65, became a leading bidder for state-owned banks that Mexico was privatizing.

The leading bidder was the Rymer Company, which, according to several professionals involved, was willing to pay close to $45 million.

A Perkin-Elmer spokesman said the company was talking with several companies but declined to comment on whether Nikon was the leading bidder.