TIRE & RUBBER
Steelworkers resume talks
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and the United Steelworkers resumed contract negotiations Monday, while the union and Bridgestone Americas began contract talks Wednesday.
The Steelworkers and Michelin/B.F. Goodrich are scheduled to begin talks June 16 in Knoxville, Tenn.
The union’s current contracts with the three tire makers expire July 27.
Goodyear negotiations, which started in late April and then went on a scheduled hiatus, are taking place in Cincinnati. The Bridgestone talks are in Jeffersonville, Ind., just across the Ohio River from Louisville, Ky.
Control shifting at Pirelli
A group led by Pirelli Chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera won backing from Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, UniCredit SpA and Clessidra SGR to gain more direct control of Europe’s third-largest tire maker, resolving a shareholder dispute.
Malacalza Investimenti, which was seeking to exit its holding, agreed to sell its 12 percent stake in Pirelli’s largest shareholder Cam Finanziaria SpA and its 31 percent stake in the company controlling Camfin for $209 million. Newly created Lauro Sessantuno, backed by Tronchetti, will seek to buy out all Camfin stock, which has a market value of $814 million, according to a statement.
The new holding structure ends a strategy dispute with Malacalza, which was hanging over Pirelli as it pushed sales of high-end tires to offset weak auto demand in Europe. Pirelli’s first-quarter earnings before interest and taxes fell 16 percent to $236 million as revenue declined 1.3 percent.
Lauro Sessantuno will own 60.99 percent of Camfin after the contribution of Tronchetti’s shares and will bid for the rest of Camfin stock at $1.05 each, the investors said in the statement. As part of the deal, Malacalza agreed to end legal challenges over Tronchetti’s holdings. Tronchetti controls Milan-based Pirelli through Camfin, supported by an agreement with other investors including Mediobanca SpA, Italy’s biggest publicly traded investment bank. The investors pooled their shares totaling 32 percent of Pirelli in a shareholder agreement.
MEDIA
Yahoo launches redesign
Yahoo! Inc. redesigned its U.S. Web search as Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer works to revive growth at the Internet portal. Search results will now load faster and appear higher on the page, the Sunnyvale, Calif., company said in a statement. The company is also introducing a navigation bar at the top of the page to help users browse other Yahoo sites.
Mayer, CEO of the biggest U.S. Web portal since July, is trying to lure users and advertisers back to Yahoo as it chases Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. in the $17.7 billion market for display ads. Mayer has made several acquisitions since taking the helm, including last months’s $1.1 billion agreement to acquire blogging network Tumblr Inc.
FURNITURE
Ikea will remain in family
Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad handed his youngest son the chairmanship of the company that controls the flat-pack furniture chain’s brand and concept as the retailer transitions power to the family’s next generation. Mathias Kamprad replaces Chairman Per Ludvigsson as part of a generational shift that has been in preparation for years, Inter Ikea Group said. Ingvar Kamprad, 87, who started selling matches to his neighbors at the age of five and founded Ikea in 1943, retired as chief executive officer of the biggest home-furnishings retailer in 1986. He’s the world’s fifth-richest man, with an estimated worth of $52.7 billion.
ECONOMY
Fed reports modest pace
There is little evidence that cutbacks in federal government spending were slowing down the economy, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday. Instead, the Beige Book released by the Fed, covering the period from early April to late May, said the economy maintained the “modest to moderate” pace that has been in place so far this year.
Of the Fed’s 12 district banks, the only outlier was Dallas, which reported “strong” growth.
COMPUTING
Outlook added to tablets
Microsoft will add its popular Outlook email program to more tablets running on a lightweight version of its Windows operating system as part of a free software update this year.
The Outlook 2013 app will be given to owners of Microsoft’s Surface tablet and devices running Windows RT. That’s a slimmed down version of Windows 8, a radical overhaul of the operating system. Microsoft is preparing to modify Windows 8 in response to consumer complaints.
Compiled from staff and wire reports