LOCAL BUSINESS
Export class to be offered
Export 101, a class for businesses new to exporting and small companies already engaged with exporting, will be offered at the Kent State Stark campus.
Topics include understanding shipping and logistics, export financing and payment risk, legal considerations and market entry strategies. Speakers will include experts from the private and public sectors.
Cost is $65. Registration deadline is July 3. The course is sponsored by the International Trade Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
To register, call 216-522-4750 or 330-678-0695.
Contest for startup companies
The National Association for the Self-Employed and the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council have combined with a group called Fundable on a contest for startup companies wanting to raise money to start or grow their businesses.
Participating self-employed individuals or small businesses will use the Fundable platform to create their company fundraising pages that will be reviewed by the national association and the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council. Ten finalists will then seek to use the Fundable platform to garner support and funding. The winner will be announced after Labor Day in early September and will receive the money that individual or business has raised.
To learn more about the contest and apply, go online to www.fundable.com/contest.
Miraglia is board chairman
Newly retired Timken senior executive Salvatore Miraglia is the new chairman of the nonprofit Ohio Aerospace Institute board of trustees.
Miraglia succeeds retired Brig. Gen. Peter Hennessey, a vice president at Battelle, who completed a three-year term as chairman and will remain on the board.
Miraglia retired last year from a 40-year career with Canton-based bearings and steelmaker Timken. He was president of Timken’s Steel Group. He also previously served as chairman of the OAI board from 2004 to 2007.
The Ohio Aerospace Institute works to improve the state’s aerospace competitiveness by supporting research and technology development, workforce preparedness, and engagement with global networks.
TELEVISION
Intel set-top box coming
Intel Corp. said it plans to begin selling a set-top box offering Internet-based television service this year and is confident it can obtain programming.
Eric Free, a vice president and general manager of the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip maker, outlined plans for the product and service at the TV of Tomorrow conference in San Francisco.
Intel, the world’s largest semiconductor maker, plans to offer pay television through Internet connections, creating new competition for incumbent providers like Time Warner Cable and DirecTV. Intel has been demonstrating the service as it seeks programming from media companies such as Time Warner, Comcast, NBC Universal and Viacom.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Sprint takeover set
Sprint Nextel Corp. shareholders approved a $21.6 billion deal with Tokyo-based SoftBank Corp., agreeing to give the Japanese company control of the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier after an eighth-month saga.
About 98 percent of the votes cast favored the transaction, Kansas-based Sprint said. SoftBank, which has three of the four regulatory approvals needed to do the Sprint deal, still requires a final OK from the Federal Communications Commission.
The shareholder decision ends a takeover contest that saw a $25.5 billion counteroffer from satellite-television provider Dish Network Corp., a special agreement to appoint a national security representative to the company’s board and a bidding war for control of Clearwire Corp. — a wireless Internet service provider half-owned by Sprint.
TOY INDUSTRY
Two halls of fame combine
The great minds of the toy industry will be honored alongside the famous toys they created under a new partnership being announced at the Strong Museum in Rochester, N.Y.
Officials said the National Toy Hall of Fame housed at the museum is being combined with the Toy Industry Hall of Fame, which honors individuals. Past inductees include Milton Bradley, Frederick August Otto Schwarz and George Lucas.
Officials say the groups have been talking for some time about combining their respective halls as a way to raise their visibility and to promote their educational missions. The new expanded hall is expected to open at the Strong Museum in the fall of 2015 after undergoing $4 million in renovations.
Compiled from staff and wire reports