BUSINESS BRIEFS
Weather Channel will go to NBC for $3.5 billion
Advertiser News Services
NEW YORK — NBC Universal and two partners said yesterday they have reached a deal to buy The Weather Channel from Landmark Communications Inc., ending a drawn-out process that had attracted interest from several major media companies.
Financial terms weren't disclosed, but a person familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity said the purchase price was $3.5 billion in cash. NBC was joined in the deal by the private equity firms The Blackstone Group LP and Bain Capital LLC.
NBC became the sole bidder for The Weather Channel last month after Time Warner Inc. dropped out. CBS Corp. and cable industry leader Comcast Corp. also had expressed interest earlier.
NBC and Landmark said they expected the transaction to close by year's end, pending regulatory approvals.
CHINA PREMIER WARNS OF INFLATION
BEIJING — China's premier called for continued vigilance against inflation that has reached 12-year highs, saying the government should ensure that price increases are "acceptable," a state-run news agency reported yesterday.
Premier Wen Jiabao, the country's top economic official, made the comments during a tour of eastern China's Jiangsu province and the financial capital of Shanghai, apparently as a reminder for local officials not to get complacent.
Inflation jumped in mid-2007 as China ran short of pork, grain and other foods.
Consumer prices rose 7.7 percent in May over the same month last year, well above the government target of 4.8 percent for this year. Inflation in February was 8.7 percent — the highest in 12 years.
COCA-COLA TO PAY $137.5M IN SUIT
ATLANTA — The Coca-Cola Co., the world's largest beverage maker, has agreed to pay $137.5 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit that claimed company officials misrepresented or omitted information in public statements, causing the company's stock price to be inflated.
The Atlanta-based company did not admit any wrongdoing in settling the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, according to the agreement dated June 26 and entered July 3.
The complaint by Carpenters Health & Welfare Fund of Philadelphia & Vicinity and Local 144 Nursing Home Pension Fund alleged that certain material facts concerning Coca-Cola and the condition of its business and financial results were misrepresented, causing the price of Coke stock to be inflated artificially.
MANY COMPANIES CUTTING DIVIDENDS
WASHINGTON — The credit crisis and economic slowdown have become so grave that many companies are chopping dividend payments to their shareholders.
Financial institutions, reeling from the rise in foreclosures and ensuing credit crunch, are making the most drastic reductions. Citigroup, which has recorded billions of dollars in losses on mortgage securities, earlier this year lopped its dividend by 41 percent. Washington Mutual slashed its quarterly dividend to a mere penny.
Seventeen of 20 financial companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index have cut their dividends so far this year.
It's a significant blow to investors, many of whom considered dividend stocks a safe harbor in an environment of falling stock prices.
KOREA CURBS USE OF OFFICIAL VEHICLES
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea will limit vehicle operations by public employees as part of an energy-saving campaign.
Prime Minister Han Seung-soo said yesterday that officials in more than 800 public institutions will be allowed to use their vehicles every other day, beginning July 15.
Resource-poor South Korea imports virtually all of its oil and has been intensifying what it calls energy diplomacy to secure stable supplies.
