LOCAL BUSINESS
Inventapalooza event set
Inventapalooza, the Akron Summit County Public Library’s celebration of invention, returns Nov. 2-3 at the Main Library at 60 S. High St. downtown.
The event focuses on small businesses, as well as providing information and fun activities for inventors, entrepreneurs and families, the library said.
Inventapalooza also will feature a group of local inventors — the Inventors Roundtable — sharing tips for bringing a product to market. The inventors will answer questions from the audience.
Here’s the schedule of events:
Nov. 2: 3 p.m. — Craig Morris, managing attorney for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Va., What Every Small Business Owner Should Know Now, Not Later.
Nov 3: 9:30 a.m. — Library system Director David Jennings, welcome address; 9:40 a.m. — Craig Morris repeats the same program; 11 a.m. — Things That Go, story time, Children’s Library; 11:30 a.m. — Jeff St. Clair, with WKSU-FM public radio, ExploRadio: Exploring Science and Innovation in Northeast Ohio; 1 p.m. — Inventors Roundtable; 2 p.m. — Highways and Byways, family activity, Children’s Library.
For more information, contact the Main Library’s Science & Technology division at 330-643-9075 or stdiv@akronlibrary.org.
AUTO INDUSTRY
Toyota back on top
Toyota has widened its global sales lead over General Motors because its factories have recovered from last year’s earthquake. The Japanese automaker said it sold 7.4 million vehicles around the world through September, up 28 percent from a year earlier. That’s 450,000 more than General Motors, which said it sold 6.95 million cars and trucks. GM’s global sales are up 2.5 percent for the first nine months. Toyota could face a slowdown in the fourth quarter as sales fall in China.
ENTERTAINMENT
Cedar Point to serve Coke
Cedar Point visitors will find out next year whether roller coasters go better with Coke.
The park’s parent firm, Cedar Fair LP, announced a 10-year pact to make Coca-Cola the “Official Refreshment Beverage” of its parks starting in January. The deal’s terms were not made public. The parks previously sold Pepsi products.
RETAIL
Best Buy forecast weak
Best Buy Co., the retailer resisting a takeover attempt by its founder, said fiscal third-quarter profit will be “significantly” below last year’s results as sales at established stores continue to decline. Comparable-store sales will drop at a rate consistent with the first two quarters, Richfield, Minn.-based Best Buy said. Same-store sales fell 5.3 percent in the first quarter and 3.2 percent in the second.
Prices up 3 to 4 percent
U.S. consumers will pay 3 percent to 4 percent more for groceries next year, the Department of Agriculture said, leaving its forecast unchanged from last month. Retail food prices for this year will rise by 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent, the USDA said. That figure was also unchanged from last month’s projection.
ENERGY
Acquisitions fall off
The wheeling and dealing over the natural gas-rich Marcellus Shale has hit the pause stage.
The financial firm PricewaterhouseCoopers said Marcellus merger and acquisition activity fell to zero in the third quarter of 2012, after major energy companies spent tens of billions of dollars over the last three years. In the previous quarter the deals had totaled $1.6 billion.
PricewaterhouseCoopers said low natural gas prices are the main factor, not the output or potential of the vast shale gas formation, which lies under parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York, Ohio and Maryland. But the current low prices have caused many companies to shift their attention to more profitable oil drilling, which is also booming.
Compiled from staff and wire reports.