QUOTE OF THE DAY “It turns out Joe Camel’s nose has been under the tent this whole time in terms of crop insurance subsidies.” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.,
referring to $33 million a year in insurance policies for tobacco farmers Article, 1DSaks hires firm to explore possible sale
Saks Inc. has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to explore strategic alternatives, including a sale of the company, said two people with knowledge of the matter.
The New York-based retailer might consider selling itself to a private-equity firm in a leveraged buyout, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the process is private.
Saks might be exploring a sale now because its shares have increased by almost a third this year and interest rates are low, giving potential buyers cheap financing, said one of the people familiar with the situation. Saks’ Dallas based rival, Neiman Marcus Group Inc., owned by TPG Capital and Warburg Pincus LLC, hired Credit Suisse Group AG earlier this month to explore an initial public offering or sale.
“It is against our policy to comment on rumors or speculation,” Julia Bentley, a spokesman for Saks, said in a statement. Andrew Williams, a spokesman for Goldman Sachs, declined to comment.
Smiley steps down at Southern Bancorp
Walter Smiley, who has been chairman of the board of Southern Bancorp for more than 20 years, is stepping down and will be replaced by Glendell Jones Jr., the Arkadelphia bank-holding company said.
Jones is president of Henderson State University in Arkadelphia.
Smiley, who will remain on Southern Bancorp’s board, helped found Southern Bancorp with Hillary Clinton;
Thomas F. “Mack” McLarty, former chief of staff for President Bill Clinton; and Robson Walton, chairman of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
“Now, having seen the power of our model, it is time to let others take it even further,” Smiley said in a prepared statement.
Southern Bancorp is one of the largest and most profitable community-development banks in the country.
It seeks to reduce poverty by improving education and economic opportunities for individuals and families in its service areas.
Apple ‘s CEO: ‘All taxes we owe’ paid
Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook on Tuesday defended his company’s use of offshore tax shelters before U.S. senators who castigated the technology company for avoiding $9 billion and more in payments.
“We pay all the taxes we owe - every single dollar,” Cook said in testimony before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. “We not only comply with the laws; we comply with the spirit of the laws.”
Sen. Carl Levin used the hearing to say Apple used “loopholes” to avoid paying $9 billion in U.S. taxes in 2012.
“Apple executives want the public to focus on the U.S. taxes the company has paid, but the real issue is the billions in taxes it has not paid,” said Levin, a Michigan Democrat. Apple employs “offshore tax strategies whose purpose is tax avoidance, pure and simple,” he said.
Tuesday’s hearing was called to air accusations the iPhone maker has created a web of offshore entities to avoid paying U.S. taxes.
Apple, in written testimony, denied any wrongdoing and said the company was one of the largest taxpayers in the U.S., having paid $6 billion last year.
- Bloomberg NewsDisney’s ESPN slashes jobs to cut costs
Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN sports television division fired several hundred workers Tuesday as part of a companywide cost-cutting effort.
The firings number fewer than 400 and include unfilled positions, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and asked not to be named. ESPN, based in Bristol, Conn., announced the cuts in a statement.
“We are implementing changes across the company to enhance our continued growth while smartly managing costs,” ESPN said in the statement. “While difficult, we are confident that it will make us more competitive, innovative and productive.”
The cuts amount to less than 6 percent of ESPN’s 7,000 employees worldwide. Disney, the world’s largest entertainment company, eliminated 150 jobs from its film studio in April and shut down video-game development in Austin, Texas, and at the recently acquired Lucasfilm Ltd.
as part of broad efficiency effort this year. The company said May 7 that fiscal second-quarter profit rose 32 percent to $1.51 billion.
The cuts were previously reported by the sports news website Deadspin.com.
- Bloomberg News
Texas to get Japanese chemical plant
Japanese companies Idemitsu Kosan Co. and Mitsui & Co. have applied to build a chemical plant in Texas at Dow Chemical Co.’s largest production site as more foreign companies try to benefit from cheap U.S. natural gas.
The factory would use ethylene to make alpha olefins, which are added to polyethylene plastics and other resins, on land owned by Midland, Mich.-based Dow at its site in Freeport on the Gulf Coast, the companies said in an application for air emissions filed Friday with federal and state regulators.
The companies in March disclosed plans to produce alpha olefins in the U.S. without saying where the plant would be built. Construction would begin in a year with production starting in the second half of 2016, according to the application.
- Bloomberg News
GM to expand Lansing plant, add jobs
DETROIT - General Motors said Tuesday that it will invest $44.5 million at a Lansing, Mich., factory, creating 200 new jobs.
The automaker says it will build a 400,000-square-foot building next to the Lansing Grand River plant to assemble parts and put them in the right order for manufacturing.
The factory already employs more than 1,500 hourly and salaried workers who make the Cadillac ATS and CTS luxury sports sedans. It also will make the next generation Chevrolet Camaro in 2015.
GM said the new logistics center will make the factory more efficient and cut transportation costs.
Business, Pages 26 on 05/22/2013