Charles and David Koch, the billionaire U.S. industrialist brothers, are backing publisher and broadcaster Meredith Corp.’s revived bid to purchase Time Inc., according to a person familiar with the matter.
The Kochs have tentatively agreed to support Meredith’s offer with an equity injection of more than $500 million, the person said, confirming an earlier New York Times report. The person asked not to be identified because the matter is private.
An email to the billionaire brothers’ business, Koch Industries Inc., wasn’t immediately answered. A Time representative declined to comment and an email to Meredith outside of business hours wasn’t immediately returned.
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The headquarters of Time Inc. in New York. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg
A breakthrough by a Swiss chocolate maker expands the industry’s hues beyond just dark, milk and white.
Barry Callebaut AG, the world’s largest cocoa processor, has come up with the first new natural color for chocolate since Nestle SA started making bars of white chocolate more than 80 years ago. While it has a pinkish hue and a fruity flavor, the Zurich-based company prefers to refer to it as “ruby chocolate.”
The new product may help boost sales in a struggling global chocolate market that producers hope has touched bottom. As Hershey cuts 15 percent of its staff and Nestle tries to sell its U.S. chocolate business, ruby chocolate raises the possibility that next Valentine’s Day may arrive with store shelves full of natural pink chocolate hearts.
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Barry Callebaut’s new ‘ruby chocolate’. Source: Barry Callebaut AG
Cattle in the U.S. are now the fattest they’ve ever been, signaling an end to the seven-year run of record beef prices just as losses begin to mount for American feedlot owners.
Tom Fanning, who manages a feedlot herd of 30,000 in Buffalo, Oklahoma, says he loses $100 to $300 on each animal he sells to slaughtering plants, even though they are bigger and produce more meat than ever. Its worse for other producers. On average, industry losses began in December and ballooned to $420 a head this month, the Livestock Marketing Information Center estimates.
Cattle futures have plunged 23 percent from an all-time high a year ago as the U.S. herd began a long-awaited expansion and consumers switched to cheaper chicken and pork. That’s squeezed feedlot owners who buy year-old steers and raise them on a diet of mostly corn for more than four months. To ease the pain, operators like Fanning are taking advantage of ample, low- cost grain supplies by holding cattle for almost a month longer than normal, which means the animals get bigger and generate more revenue.
The biggest entitlement legislation in a generation is causing barely a ripple in corporate America.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — otherwise known as Obamacare — is putting such a small dent in the profits of U.S. companies that many refer to its impact as “not material” or “not significant,” according to a Bloomberg review of conference-call transcripts and interviews with major U.S. employers.
That’s even after a provision went into effect this year requiring companies with 50 or more full-time workers to provide coverage, and after more workers are choosing to enroll in existing company coverage because of another requirement that all Americans get insured.
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Click link belowfor article (Obamacare Barely Affecting Corporate Profits…):
They may be beautiful. They may be dark. But the fact that someone was twisted enough to pay $93,000 for them — that’s not a fantasy.
You guessed it, we’re talking about a pair of Nike Air Yeezy II sneakers designed by rapper Kanye West that, yes, fetched almost $100,000 on eBay Wednesday, according to USA Today (h/t Bloomberg). Set for “limited” release to the public Saturday, the shoes, similar to those already worn by West collaborator Jay-Z and Miami Heat sensation Lebron James, are highly anticipated. Yet it’s hard to ignore the fact that bids for other pairs of the same shoes aren’t exceeding $3,000.
Still, basketball shoes selling in the five-figure range isn’t unheard of. A pair of limited edition silver Air Jordans sold for $60,000 at an eBay auction in June 2011, according to BornRich. Likewise, diamond studded Nike Air Force 1s reportedly went for $50,000, while purchasing one of 12 pairs of signed Air Jordan I shoes will set you back $25,000.
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
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James' World 2 