QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It’s a one-hit wonder.”
Francis Gaskins, Equities.com director of research and president of IPOdesktop.com, on King Digital’s Wednesday IPO Article, 1D
Texarkana Gazette names new manager
Kirk Blair, marketing director of the Texarkana Gazette, has been named the newspaper’s general manager, the move being effective Tuesday.
Blair, who has worked at the paper for 33 years, replaces Buddy King, who has been general manager since 1988.
Blair’s career in the newspaper industry started in the 1970s when he took a part-time position at the newspaper to earn extra money. He was a high school biology teacher and a coach at the time. By the early 1980s, he was supervising city delivery routes and carriers.
Blair managed a staff of more than 50 people as marketing director. The Texarkana Gazette is owned by WEHCO Media, which also owns the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Tyson Brazil unit names new president
Flavio Malnarcic has been promoted to president and general manager of Tyson do Brazil, a subsidiary of Tyson Foods Inc.
Malnarcic has been with the company since 2009, when he was hired as the director of financing and accounting for the Brazilian facilities.
Tyson do Brazil employs an estimated 4,000 workers and processes more than 2 million chickens per week at its three locations.
Levi Strauss restructuring to cut 800 jobs
SAN FRANCISCO - Levi Strauss & Co. is planning to eliminate about 800 jobs as part of restructuring efforts over the next 12 to 18 months.
The privately held company said Wednesday that the positions being eliminated represent almost 20 percent of its nonretail and nonmanufacturing employees.
The job eliminations are part of the first phase of the restructuring plan. That phase is expected to result in about $75 million to $100 million in annual savings, before restructuring and related charges.
Those charges, which will total approximately $65 million, will mostly be recorded in the first quarter.
The entire restructuring plan is expected to deliver $175 million to $200 million a year in savings.
Deal on Tesla clears Ohio Senate panel
An Ohio Senate committee approved a bill formally barring automakers from selling directly to consumers except for a maximum of three outlets for electric-car builder Tesla Motors Inc.
The measure was a compromise between the company and the Ohio Automobile Dealers Association, which had sought to block Tesla from selling without a middleman, according to state Sen. Scott Oelslager, the committee chairman.
Tesla, based in Palo Alto, Calif., operates Ohio stores in Columbus and Cincinnati and will be permitted to add a third as long as the company isn’t sold or acquired and doesn’t produce anything other than all-electric vehicles, under the legislation worked out Tuesday.
The bill, which prohibits the state from issuing a dealer’s license to an automaker except for Tesla, moves to the full Ohio Senate for consideration.
Investor urges change at top for Darden
NEW YORK - It’s time for Olive Garden’s parent company, Darden Restaurants, to consider looking for a new chief executive officer, an activist investor said Wednesday.
Barington Capital Group said it sent a letter to the independent directors on Darden’s board saying it was concerned by the company’s “rapidly deteriorating financial performance” under Chief Executive Clarence Otis.
The letter said the firm has “long questioned why the board did not select a person with stronger operating experience in the industry to run Darden.”
Darden said in a statement that its focus was on doing “what is in the best interest of all Darden shareholders and the board is confident in the actions the company is taking to deliver this responsibility.”
The intensifying criticism comes as Darden Restaurants Inc., based in Orlando, Fla., fights to increase sales at its Olive Garden and Red Lobster chains.
- The Associated Press
13 win energy-exploration bids in Burma
RANGOON, Burma - Major oil companies including Total, Chevron, Woodside Energy and Shell have won bids for offshore oil and gas exploration blocks off Burma’s western coast.
An announcement posted Wednesday on the Energy Ministry’s website said 13 oil companies won bids to explore in 10 shallow-water blocks and 10 deep-water blocks in the Gulf of Martaban and Tanintharyi, off the western state of Rakhine.
- The Associated Press
Business, Pages 26 on 03/27/2014