PUBLISHING
Merger is completed
Random House and Penguin completed their planned merger Monday, creating the biggest and most powerful book publisher in the world. The new company, called Penguin Random House, will control more than 25 percent of the U.S. trade book market, giving it unmatched leverage against Amazon.com, a growing force in the industry.
ELECTRONICS
Apple seeks trademark
Apple Inc., the world’s most valuable technology company, is seeking a trademark for “iWatch” in Japan as rival Samsung Electronics Co. readies its own wearable computing device.
The iPhone maker is seeking protection for the name, which is listed in a category for products such as a hand-held computer or watch, according to a June 3 filing with the Japan Patent Office that was made public last week.
Apple’s shares have retreated more than 40 percent from a record high in September amid concern that Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has taken too long to deliver a new breakthrough product to help make up for stiffer iPhone competition. The company has a team of about 100 product designers working on a wristwatch-like device that may perform some of the tasks now handled by the iPhone and iPad, two people familiar with the company’s plans said in February.
“We can expect a full TV at Apple in the future, maybe a watch, and who knows what other future devices,” Tavis McCourt, an analyst at Raymond James & Associates Inc., wrote in a research report Monday.
ECONOMY
Construction sees increase
Spending on residential housing rose in May to the highest level in 4½ years, helping to send overall construction spending higher despite a big drop in nonresidential activity. Construction spending rose 0.5 percent in May compared with April when spending was up 0.1 percent, the Commerce Department said.
ACQUISITIONS
Steinway goes private
Famed piano maker Steinway is being acquired by private equity firm Kohlberg & Co. for about $438 million. Steinway, which has been in business for 160 years, said previously that it was looking into selling the company. Kohlberg, which would take the company private, will start a tender offer to buy all of Steinway’s outstanding stock for $35 per share, a 15 percent premium to its Friday closing price of $30.43.
Lockheed studies chances
Lockheed Martin Corp., the world’s largest defense company with operations in Akron, is establishing a unit dedicated to export business as it seeks to offset declining sales at home amid Pentagon spending cuts.
The effort is focused on strengthening existing ties and building new ones, Lockheed Martin President and Chief Executive Officer Marillyn Hewson said. The business will have dual headquarters in London and in the Washington, D.C., area.
U.S. defense contractors are increasingly looking overseas for sales, particularly in Asia and the Middle East.
OBITUARY
Ex-Mobil chief dies
Rawleigh Warner, the Mobil Oil Corp. chairman and chief executive officer who took corporate image-management to a new level through company sponsorship of “Masterpiece Theater” on public television and paid opinion pieces that appeared in U.S. newspapers, has died. He was 92.
In 1970, after the New York Times opened its op-ed page to paid advertising, Warner directed Herbert Schmertz to give Mobil a voice in public affairs through what became known as advocacy advertising. By 1975, according to a Times story, Mobil’s op-ed ads were appearing every week in the Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe.
MANAGEMENT
Zynga CEO leaves
Zynga says its CEO, Mark Pincus, is stepping down to be replaced by Don Mattrick, the head of Microsoft’s Xbox business. The maker of FarmVille and other games said Pincus, who founded Zynga in 2007, will stay on as chairman and chief product officer. Mattrick has served as the president of Microsoft’s entertainment business, which includes the Xbox, since 2010. He’s been with Microsoft for six years.
Iger stays at Disney
Walt Disney Co. extended Robert Iger’s tenure as chief executive officer of the world’s largest entertainment company for more than a year, to June 2016. Iger was scheduled to relinquish his title April 1, 2015.
Compiled from wire reports