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| Disney to buy "Star Wars" producer for $4.05 billion Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 08:58 PM PDT  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co agreed to buy filmmaker George Lucas's Lucasfilm Ltd and its "Star Wars" franchise for $4.05 billion in cash and stock, a blockbuster deal that includes the surprise promise of a new film in the series in 2015. The deal unites a boutique Northern California film studio that brought special effects into the digital era with a venerable Hollywood powerhouse that has shown a knack for getting the most out of big-name entertainment brands. ... Full Story | Top |
| Apple's iPad mini packs full-sized punch but screen inferior: reviews Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 07:55 PM PDT  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc's entry in the accelerating mobile tablet race squeezes about 35 percent more viewing space onto a lighter package than rival devices from Google or Amazon.com Inc, but it sports inferior resolution and a lofty price tag, two influential reviewers wrote on Tuesday. The iPad mini, which starts at $329 versus the $199 for Google's Nexus 7 and Amazon's Kindle Fire HD, is easy to hold with one hand, eliminating a drawback of the 10-inch iPad, Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg wrote in one of the first major reviews of a gadget introduced last week. ... Full Story | Top |
| ECB's Coeure: must be mindful of balance sheet risks Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 07:33 PM PDT OSAKA, Japan (Reuters) - The European Central Bank must be mindful of the risks posed by assets held on its balance sheet as ultimately taxpayers will bear the burden of any losses, a senior member of the central bank said on Wednesday. There is no shortage of collateral in the euro zone financial market and the priority is to make better use of it to ensure smooth financial transactions, ECB Executive Board member Benoit Coeure said. Coeure's comments come as the ECB has been forced to defend its unconventional policy of buying an unlimited amount of debt from struggling euro zone members. ... Full Story | Top |
| Best Buy analyst meeting canceled due to East Coast storm Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 07:31 PM PDT  (Reuters) - Best Busy Co Inc on Tuesday canceled an analyst meeting it had planned to hold in New York this week as the city tries to recover from the massive storm Sandy, postponing Chief Executive Hubert Joly's opportunity to tell investors how he plans to turn the company around. No new date has been set for the meeting, which had been scheduled for Thursday, spokeswoman Amy von Walter said. "We are very much looking forward to getting in front of the investment community to share Hubert's situational assessment and strategy going forward," von Walter said. ... Full Story | Top |
| News Corp's $2.1 billion bid for Consolidated Media approved Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 07:22 PM PDT  MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Shareholders in Consolidated Media Holdings Ltd voted in favor of a A$2 billion ($2.07 billion) takeover offer from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, giving News Corp a greater share of Australia's pay-TV market. The deal will double the stake of News Corp's Australian unit in dominant pay-TV operator Foxtel to 50 percent and give it 100 percent of content provider Fox Sports, boosting its pay-TV exposure at the same time as it cuts back print operations. The board of Consolidated Media had backed the offer. (Reporting by Victoria Thieberger; Editing by John Mair) Full Story | Top |
| Disney's $4 billion Lucasfilm deal began with lightsabers in Orlando Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 06:35 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co's $4 billion deal to buy George Lucas's Lucasfilm Ltd, Disney's third major entertainment acquisition in seven years, started taking shape in May 2011, when the "Star Wars" creator had to show Disney CEO Bob Iger how to use a lightsaber. Lucas and Iger were at Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park in Orlando, Florida, brandishing the toys at the grand opening of a 3-D version of the park's Star Tours ride, Iger recalls, and "George had to show me how to use it. ... Full Story | Top |
| Outages, floods hit two New Jersey refineries; others restart Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 05:38 PM PDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Flooding at the second-largest refinery on the U.S. East Coast plus power glitches at two other plants and a key New Jersey terminal hub slowed the recovery in fuel supplies disrupted by Hurricane Sandy. While the region's biggest plant, in Philadelphia, and several others were ramping up operations after escaping damage, other facilities, pipelines and terminals were struggling to restore the flow of supplies that had slowed to a trickle. Several operators cited power outages around the Linden, New Jersey, hub near the key New York harbor trading area. ... Full Story | Top |
| Boeing says 787s for United Airlines are delayed Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 05:15 PM PDT (Reuters) - Boeing Co said delivery of at least two 787 jets for United Airlines was taking longer than expected, a surprise hitch in delivery to its first U.S. customer that is set to disappoint some customers wanting to ride the new fuel-efficient aircraft. Boeing said it is working diligently to complete United Airlines' next 787s for delivery but that the process is "taking a few days longer than anticipated. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. companies hustle to re-staff, reopen after Sandy Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 05:05 PM PDT  NEW YORK/CHICAGO (Reuters) - After Hurricane Sandy bashed the East Coast with wind, flooding and a blizzard, companies scrambled on Tuesday to assess the damage, figure out how to get staff back on the job, and get customers what they needed from fresh water to roofing supplies, Wi-Fi and power for laptops. With the holiday season quickly approaching, retailers in particular hurried to get back to business. ... Full Story | Top |
| UK's Barclays looks to move on from Libor scandal Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 05:01 PM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - Barclays reports third-quarter results on Wednesday, with new chief executive Antony Jenkins aiming to restore some stability after a tumultuous summer for the UK bank dominated by fallout from the Libor interest rate rigging scandal. Jenkins, appointed CEO at the end of August, has taken over from Bob Diamond, who resigned after Barclays was fined for its part in manipulating the Libor benchmark interest rate. Investors are looking for clues on how radical the new CEO will be in shaking up the bank. ... Full Story | Top |
| Hurricane Sandy losses may be triple those of Irene Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 04:53 PM PDT  (Reuters) - Hurricane Sandy appears to have easily caused twice or even three times the losses of last year's Hurricane Irene, but final totals will be hard to come by for some time because of the scale of the disaster, catastrophe forecasting companies said on Tuesday. One of the biggest questions now is who will pay for the extensive damage to municipal infrastructure -- subway tunnels, train tracks, electrical transformers, coastal boardwalks and piers -- that Sandy left behind along the East Coast. ... Full Story | Top |
| Citigroup prepared for trading after power outages Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 04:38 PM PDT (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc said it was ready for markets to re-open on Wednesday despite power outages in the waterside neighborhood where it is located and flood damage in a building where its investment bankers work. "We are prepared for the re-opening of the markets, and will utilize our back-up locations to ensure continuity of operations until our staff can return to our Lower Manhattan offices," the company said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. stock markets to reopen on Wednesday after storm Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 04:30 PM PDT  (Reuters) - Major U.S. stock exchanges expect to reopen on Wednesday after Sandy, the worst storm to hit New York in nearly 75 years, closed trading for two days. NYSE Euronext said the New York Stock Exchange would open as usual, although it was prepared to switch to fully electronic trading if necessary. Nasdaq OMX's Nasdaq Stock Market was also to be operating on Wednesday, as were BATS and Direct Edge Exchanges. "We have a green light," the chief operating officer of NYSE Euronext, Larry Leibowitz, said in an interview. All of the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Chase branches struggle with Sandy's aftermath Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 04:25 PM PDT (Reuters) - Sandy could be the toughest challenge yet for the man who fixes JPMorgan Chase & Co's bank branches after hurricanes. The bank has more branches in and around New York than in other areas like Florida that are more commonly hit by hurricanes. And, with the city's subways damaged, getting employees around will be tough, said Emmett Vollenweider, a native of Louisiana who worked through the damage left by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Irene, among others. The bank prepared for the storm days ago by restocking 3,200 automated teller machines in the region with currency. ... Full Story | Top |
| Nustar says Paulsboro, NJ, oil terminal to be back Tuesday evening Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 04:20 PM PDT (Reuters) - U.S. pipeline and storage terminal company NuStar Energy said its Paulsboro, New Jersey, terminal should be back in operation Tuesday evening. It also said initial assessment of damage from the storm Sandy showed significant high-water damage to its marine and storage terminal at Linden, New Jersey, which was without power. Timing for a return to operation is pending, the company said. Nustar said there was no damage to the Virginia Beach, Virginia, facility, and it was back in operation. ... Full Story | Top |
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