Business news roundup, Nov. 4 gallery_thumbnails_photo|photo-7093236|article-gallery-5867341|1 AutomobilesHyundai, Kia pay big penaltyKorean automakers Hyundai and Kia will pay the U.S. government a $100 million civil penalty to end a two-year investigation into overstated gas mileage figures on window stickers on 1.2 million vehicles.The penalty, announced Monday by the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, is the first under new rules designed to limit the amount of heat-trapping gases cars are allowed to emit. Those regulations are a cornerstone of President Obama’s plans to combat global warming and are achieved largely through improving fuel economy.The payment could also serve as a precedent for other automakers that overstate mileage in violation of the Clean Air Act. Attorney General Eric Holder said the settlement underscores the need for car companies to be honest about their compliance with emissions standards.Under the settlement, Hyundai-Kia will forfeit greenhouse gas credits worth more than $200 million because the 1.2 million affected vehicles will emit about 4.75 million more metric tons of greenhouse gases than the automakers originally said. The credits could have been sold to other automakers that aren’t meeting emissions standards.Hyundai-Kia must also audit test results on current models, and set up an independent group to certify future test results, at a cost of about $50 million.With gas cheap,SUVs sell well Falling gas prices improved buyers’ moods and boosted sales of sport utility vehicles and trucks in October.GM, Toyota, Chrysler, Nissan, Volkswagen and Honda all reported sales gains last month. Of major automakers, only Ford and Hyundai saw declines.Industry sales rose 6 percent over October 2013, according to Autodata Corp.The national average price of gasoline fell 33 cents to end October at $3 a gallon, according to AAA. Gasoline is now the cheapest it has been in four years, and the decline accelerated a trend toward SUVs and trucks that has been going on all year.RetailOnline buying likely to go upForrester Research said Monday that it expects U.S. consumers to spend $89 billion online by Christmas. That’s up 13 percent, or about $10 billion, from a year ago.Analyst Sucharita Mulpuru said she thinks online shopping will make up 14 percent of total retail spending over that period. She estimated that 3.4 million Americans will try holiday shopping online for the first time this year.Mulpuru said her estimate would be higher if Thanksgiving were occurring earlier. The holiday always falls between Nov. 22 and 28, and it will be on Nov. 27 this year. That means the gap between Thanksgiving and Christmas is shorter than in most years. Last year, Thanksgiving was on Nov. 28.Mulpuru said shipping networks could suffer from delays again because of the high volume of online sales. In 2013, UPS and FedEx both reported delays because of overloaded systems, poor weather and the shortened holiday period.AcquisitionsSheKnows joinswith BlogHerSheKnows Media has acquired Belmont’s BlogHer to create “the single-most influential women’s lifestyle network online,” according to a blog post from one of BlogHer’s co-founders.Lisa Stone wrote Monday that the deal will allow her and co-founders Elisa Camahort Page and Jory Des Jardins to make “the most of new opportunities such as developing premium video entertainment vehicles starring our bloggers and influencers, taking on international audiences, and developing sites and apps with industry-leading design aesthetic like SheKnows.”BlogHer currently features a network of blogs, mostly written by women, and hosts a major annual conference. As part of the deal, the groups announced a BlogHer 2015 conference in July in New York City.Dolby finishesDoremi dealSan Francisco’s Dolby Laboratories completed its purchase of digital cinema company Doremi Labs on Monday in a deal worth at least $92.5 million.Dolby said the deal, announced in February, also includes an additional $20 million that “may be earned over a four-year period.”Doremi Labs, founded in Burbank in 1985, makes digital cinema servers related equipment used in about 75,000 movie theaters worldwide.“We are thrilled to bring together two teams that are committed to delivering the best digital cinema processing and playback solutions,” said Dolby President and CEO Kevin Yeaman.LabCorp agreesto buy CovanceLabCorp will pay about $6.1 billion in cash and stock to buy Covance in a tie-up that intends to improve clinical trial research for pharmaceuticals.LabCorp said Monday that it will pay $105.12 for each share of the New Jersey company, representing a 32 percent premium to Covance’s closing price Friday. Covance shareholders will receive $75.76 in cash and a portion of LabCorp stock for each share they own.The deal totals $5.6 billion, not counting Covance debt.MusicSpotify won’tbe very SwiftTaylor Swift’s catalog was pulled from Spotify’s music service at the request of the 24-year-old musician, who has criticized streaming as a cause of declining sales.Neither Swift nor her team have commented on the decision, which Graham James, a spokesman for Spotify, confirmed in an e-mail.Losing Swift deprives Spotify of the biggest pop star in the U.S. Swift’s latest album, “1989,” was released last week and may sell the most copies in one week since 2002, according to Billboard.Swift described streaming, piracy and file sharing as reasons for the decline in album sales over the past several years in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal in July. Major artists have been practically giving their music away for promotion, Swift wrote.Chronicle News Services
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 23:40:11 +0000
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