LOCAL BUSINESS
Profits up at Morgan’s Foods
Morgan’s Foods Inc., the Cleveland operator of 75 restaurants in Northeast Ohio, announced net income for its third quarter ended Nov. 4 of $125,000, or 4 cents a share. That was up from a loss of $93,000, or 3 cents a share, for the year-ago period.
The company, which has 58 KFC restaurants, five Taco Bell locations and 12 other combination outlets, said its revenues were $20 million, up from $19.3 million.
The company said comparable restaurant revenues increased 5.8 percent in the quarter and 7.3 percent for the 36-week period of its fiscal year. Morgan’s credited “effective promotions and marketing strategies” by its franchisors for the increases.
VIDEO
Online-video service grows
Redbox Instant by Verizon, the new online-video service, expanded a test of its subscription streaming by opening it to a wider group of invited users.
The company, a venture between Coinstar Inc.’s Redbox and Verizon Communications Inc., announced the expansion Wednesday on Twitter Inc.
The service is counting on price and convenience to gain a foothold in the online-video market. Customers will be able to buy unlimited streaming and four rentals per month from Redbox kiosks for $8 or $9. The higher price includes access to Blu-ray discs. Streaming-only is $6 a month, Chief Executive Officer Shawn Strickland said in a Dec. 12 interview.
The Twitter announcement directs readers to RedboxInstant.com to request an invitation for the expanded trial run. The service was previously being tested by about 2,000 employees of New York-based Verizon, the second-largest U.S. phone company.
A full commercial rollout is expected in the first quarter of 2013, the company has said.
CORPORATE SALES
Google sells cable unit
Google is selling a part of its Motorola Mobility division for $2.35 billion to the Arris Group.
The sale involves the part of Motorola that makes cable TV boxes and other equipment for home entertainment. If the deal wins regulatory approval, Arris Group Inc. will take over within the next six months.
Google will retain the rest of Motorola Mobility that makes smartphones and tablet computers.
The decision to jettison part of Motorola comes seven months after Google Inc. completed its $12.4 billion purchase of the company in the biggest acquisition in its 14-year history.
Google primarily bought Motorola to shield itself from intellectual property lawsuits. Motorola’s assets include more than 17,000 mobile patents.
Arris is based in Suwanee, Ga.
Kodak patents dispatched
Eastman Kodak once described the sale of 1,100 digital imaging patents as a windfall that could prop up and even save the beleaguered company.
On Wednesday, the sale was finally announced, but instead of bringing as much as $2.6 billion as Kodak once predicted, the selling price was far short of that amount, at about $525 million. The buyer was a consortium that includes many of the world’s biggest technology firms, among them Apple, Google, Facebook and Samsung Electronics.
Kodak officials said the sale was another crucial step toward emerging from bankruptcy, and turning around a decades-long slide for the Rochester, N.Y., corporation.
EXECUTIVE SUITE
Penney hires Fitch leader
J.C. Penney Co. hired a former Abercrombie & Fitch Co. executive to help with its stores’ layout and design as Chief Executive Officer Ron Johnson continues to lure alumni of the teen retailer.
Brandon Tonniges is a director of visual merchandising, said Joey Thomas, a J.C. Penney spokesman. Tonniges was a vice president in Abercrombie’s brand senses division, which the teen retailer’s website calls the “creative force” behind its store experience.
Johnson is overhauling the 110-year-old department-store company by turning most of its stores into collections of branded shops as well as reducing sales events and coupons. Since joining as CEO last year, the former Apple Inc. retail chief has hired ex-Abercrombie executives including Chief Operating Officer Michael Kramer, Chief Supply Chain Officer John Singleton and Chief Technology Officer Kristen Blum.
Tonniges will report to a vice president under Michael Fisher, who was named senior vice president of visual presentation in March. Abercrombie has more than 1,000 stores worldwide.
Compiled from staff and wire reports