Fox buys control of National Geographic
WASHINGTON -- The 127-year-old nonprofit National Geographic Society has struck a $725 million deal that gives 21st Century Fox a majority stake in National Geographic magazine and other media properties, expanding an existing TV partnership.
The agreement announced Wednesday will give the company controlled by Rupert Murdoch's family a 73 percent stake in the new National Geographic Partners venture. The society retains 27 percent ownership. The move shifts the longtime nonprofit magazine into a for-profit venture.
The arrangement brings together National Geographic, its cable channels and other media businesses. The National Geographic Society originally partnered with Fox in 1997 to launch the National Geographic Channel.
"This expanded partnership, bringing together all of the media and consumer activities under the National Geographic umbrella ... creates vast opportunities and enables this business to be even more successful in a digital environment," said James Murdoch, chief executive officer of 21st Century Fox, in announcing the deal.
-- The Associated Press
Corn yield trails estimates, images show
U.S. corn production is 2.8 percent lower than government estimates, according to a daily analysis of infrared satellite images taken of more than 1 million cornfields.
The world's biggest corn supplier will have an output this year of 13.3 billion bushels, according to Los Alamos, N.M.-based Descartes Labs. That compares with 13.34 billion estimated last month by Descartes and a 13.686 billion forecast by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Aug. 12. The most recent Descartes number also trails the average estimate of 13.484 billion by 33 analysts in a Bloomberg survey last week.
Lower yields and acreage caused by excessive rain from Missouri to Ohio in June and July are "clearly visible" on computer-generated maps from the previous 30 days, Descartes Chief Technology Officer Steven Brumby said Sept. 3. The biggest declines from 2014 were in Howard County, Ind., and Hardin and Logan counties in Illinois.
"The crop ran out of gas and turned toward maturity more quickly, and that will lead to a poor outcome," Brumby said. "USDA August predictions for corn yield and production are significantly overestimating conditions on the ground."
-- Bloomberg News
McDonald's switching to cage-free eggs
McDonald's Corp. said it will switch to serving only cage-free eggs at its almost 16,000 restaurants in the U.S. and Canada in the next decade, in a bid to appeal to diners concerned about the origins of their food.
The company buys about 2 billion eggs each year for its U.S. restaurants and 120 million for its Canadian locations, Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald's said in a statement Wednesday.
Chief Executive Officer Steve Easterbrook, trying to snap McDonald's prolonged sales slump, has sought to win back consumers who are searching for food that's seen as more healthful and more naturally produced. The decision also comes as McDonald's prepares to start serving breakfast all day at its U.S. locations, beginning next month.
McDonald's said earlier this year that its U.S. restaurants by early 2017 would stop serving chicken raised with some antibiotics. Since 2011, the company said, it has been buying about 13 million eggs produced by hens that aren't confined to cages.
McDonald's will have to pay 5 percent to 10 percent more for cage-free eggs and probably will have to raise menu prices, said Tom Elam, president of agriculture consultant FarmEcon LLC in Carmel, Ind.
U.S. egg prices have surged after a recent outbreak of avian flu, making it harder for restaurants and food companies to get enough to meet consumer demand. Retail prices rose to a record $2.57 a dozen in June and remained at that price in July, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
-- Bloomberg News
Mexico's inflation rate lowest since '68
Consumer prices in Mexico rose less than analysts expected in August, pushing the annual inflation rate to the lowest in almost half a century.
Prices advanced 0.21 percent from a month earlier, the National Statistics Institute said on its website Wednesday, compared with the 0.24 percent median forecast of 23 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The annual inflation rate fell to 2.59 percent from 2.74 percent the previous month, below the central bank's target of 3 percent.
Mexico's inflation rate has fallen on weak growth, falling costs for phone services and lower gasoline-price increases. The last time inflation was this slow was 1968. The central bank has signaled its readiness to raise interest rates after the peso slumped to a record low last month because of the outlook for an increase in U.S. borrowing costs.
"We're seeing a general lack of price pressures and inflation is dropping to historic lows," said Jose Velasco, an economist at Casa de Bolsa Ve Por Mas in Mexico City. "The weaker peso's effect on inflation is still quite moderate."
-- Bloomberg News
Lockheed announces plan to lay off 500
BETHESDA, Md. -- Lockheed Martin is eliminating about 500 jobs from its Information Systems and Global Solutions segment, the company announced Wednesday, as the defense contractor adjusts to changing government priorities and tries to sharpen its competitiveness.
The aerospace and defense company employs about 112,000 people globally, so the cuts amount to less than 1 percent of its total workforce.
The Bethesda, Md.-based company said the reductions will include voluntary and involuntary layoffs and will be completed by mid-November.
Lockheed said in July that it would review options for its government information technology and technical services business, mainly in Information Systems and Global Solutions.
The layoff announcement came more than a month after Lockheed Martin Corp. said it plans to spend $9 billion to buy Black Hawk helicopter maker Sikorsky Aircraft.
Lockheed's shares fell $2.35, or 1.1 percent, to close Wednesday at $204.66.
-- The Associated Press
Business on 09/10/2015