QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I’m against this deal. My concern is that as Comcast continues to get bigger, you’ll have even more power to exercise that leverage - to squeeze consumers.”
Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn.
Article, 1D
Case tests if bitcoin-laundering a crime
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - Florida has become the first state to file criminal money-laundering charges in a case involving the virtual currency bitcoin. It’s a case that’s seen testing whether current law can adapt to new digital forms of payment.
Pascal Reid and Michell Espinoza were arrested Miami Beach in an undercover sting in February. Police found them by trolling a bitcoin exchange website and posed as credit-card thieves looking to launder their illegal proceeds.
The two men have entered innocent pleas and their lawyers hope to get the charges thrown out because unregulated bitcoins are not money as defined by law. Miami-Dade County prosecutors say the money-laundering charges fit the alleged offense.
Law enforcement agencies are closely watching bitcoins for signs of illegal activity.
China’s zest for pizza a boon for dairy
MELBOURNE, Australia - China’s economy may be slowing, but its love affair with pizza is raging.
And from Hoboken, N.J., to Pudong, Shanghai, pizza pie can’t be made without mozzarella. That’s good news for Fonterra Cooperative, the world’s biggest dairy exporter and China’s top supplier of the cheese.
The Auckland-based company plans to lift mozzarella output to about 55,000 tons a year by September 2015, enough to garnish about 350 million pizzas. It forecasts demand for the cheese in China will gain about 20 percent this year and next.
Yum Brands, operator of restaurant chains including Pizza Hut, estimates that China’s consuming class will double to 600 million people by 2020, driving demand for fast food. Fonterra, which also supplies Domino’s Pizza, is raising mozzarella output across its two New Zealand plants and aims to more than double the number of its offices and operations in China to 50 locations to meet dairy demand.
“Particularly in Asia, they like the stretch of mozzarella, and couple of times a night in a Pizza Hut or a Domino’s, or a pizzeria, they’ll have stretch contests,” Rene Dedoncker, Melbourne-based director of Fonterra’s food service division, said in an interview. “The appetite of the consumer in China for Western diets and for pizza, which is seen to be quite iconic,” is forecast to keep growing.
- The Associated Press
P&G sale to Mars includes state factory
McLEAN, Va. - Procter & Gamble Co. is selling some of its pet-food brands to Mars for $2.9 billion as part of its turnaround plan that includes concentrating on its most profitable core businesses.
The maker of Tide detergent and Crest toothpaste announced Wednesday that it is selling the Iams, Eukanuba and Natura brands in North America, Latin America and elsewhere.
A P&G spokesman said Wednesday that the company operates a pet-food manufacturing plant in Russellville that will be included in the sale to Mars.
Mars Inc., which is better known for its candy brands, already owns pet-care brands such as Pedigree, Whiskas, Banfield and Royal Canin.
The privately held company based in McLean, Va., said the brands it is getting from P&G will complement the brands in its pet-care business.
The all-cash transaction excludes mostly European Union countries. P&G said it’s developing alternate plans to sell its pet-care business in those markets. The company plans to use proceeds from the sale for general corporate purposes.
- The Associated Press
Bank of America to fire 3,000 abroad
NEW YORK - Bank of America said Wednesday that it’s cutting about 3,000 jobs overseas as part of ongoing reviews of its global operations.
The jobs are in Costa Rica, the Philippines and Mexico.
The Charlotte, N.C.-based company plans to close sites in those countries over the next nine to 12 months.
Bank of America Corp. spokesman Mark Pipitone said the cuts will have no effect on Bank of America Merrill Lynch, its global banking and markets business, which serves commercial, corporate and institutional clients in Latin America.
- The Associated Press
Business, Pages 26 on 04/10/2014