Bloomberg Businessweek (Europe)
Briefs Bye-Bye Blackouts
● ● Major League Baseball, Comcast, and DirecTV agreed to settle an antitrust lawsuit brought by fans over how games are televised. The class action, filed in 2012, challenged baseball’s system of granting exclusive rights to regional cable networks in their home territories. The agreement would let fans watch their favorite teams, without regional blackouts, if they subscribe to pay-TV and buy a separate streaming service from MLB. The league will offer a package allowing fans to buy streamed games for a single team for $84.99 next season. ●● Greenlight Capital, the hedge fund run by David Einhorn, made an investment in Macy’s in the fourth quarter of last year, a letter sent to investors in January reveals. In the letter, Greenlight argues that the struggling retailer could be a takeover target because of its valuable real estate holdings. Adidas announced that Kasper Rorsted, head of Dial soap maker Henkel, will succeed Herbert Hainer as chief executive officer in October. Adidas shares soared after the announcement. ●" ● Walmart plans to close 269 stores as it abandons its smaller Express outlets and streamline operations. As many as 16,000 jobs globally will be eliminated. Sales at the retailer haven’t been growing fast enough to offset billions of dollars in spending on higher wages and website changes.
● Audi will start building its first purely electric SUV in 2018 as part of parent Volkswagen’s efforts to move away from its diesel-emissions scandal. The battery-powered vehicle will challenge Tesla’s Model X, which went on sale in the U.S. last year.
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and to cover souring energy loans as the price of oil falls below $30 a barrel. the largest U.S. Spanishlanguage broadcaster, bought a minority stake in the satirical website the Onion to reach younger audiences. “Managing and moving money should be a right for all citizens and not just a privilege for the affluent.”
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