1. RIM CHANGES ITS NAME TO BLACKBERRY
Following its annual shareholder meeting Tuesday, Canada's Research in Motion, the struggling telecommunications and wireless company, officially changed its name to BlackBerry Ltd., after its most well-known product. Following a weaker-than-expected quarterly report, CEO Thorsten Heins tried to settle shareholders' concerns. "We obviously did not deliver what many analysts and investors expected in the short term," he said. "We're driving night and day to deliver improvements." BlackBerry also announced plans to cut more jobs in middle management, on top of last year's 5,000 layoffs. [The Wall Street Journal]
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2. OIL HITS A 14-MONTH HIGH
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices for August delivery rose $1.83 to $105.36 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Wednesday, after the Oil Energy Information Administration reported that inventories dropped 9.87 million barrels, three times more than Bloomberg analysts predicted. The news supported speculation that an oil glut in the central U.S. is thinning faster than expected. The price is the highest it's been since May 2012. [Bloomberg Businessweek]
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3. JUDGE FINDS APPLE GUILTY OF PRICE-FIXING E-BOOKS
A judge found Apple guilty of colluding with five major publishers to illegally lift the prices of e-books, boosting titles that Amazon set at a bargain-basement price of $9.99. "The plaintiffs have shown that the publisher defendants conspired with each other to eliminate retail price competition in order to raise e-book prices, and that Apple played a central role in facilitating and executing that conspiracy," Judge Denise Cote wrote in her 159-page decision. [The Washington Post]
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4. CHINA OPENS THE LARGEST BUILDING IN THE WORLD
China's second largest city, Chengdu, opened the doors of the largest building in the world, the New Century Global Centre, which houses a beach, a seaside resort, a 14-screen Imax cinema, an Olympic-sized ice rink, two five-star hotels ,and a Mediterranean shopping village. The building is 5.5 million square feet, and 620 miles from the nearest ocean. [The Guardian]
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5. SEC LIFTS BAN ON HEDGE FUND ADS
The Security and Exchange Commission voted, 4 to 1, in favor of allowing hedge funds to advertise in public, ending a decades-old prohibition. The change is part of the Jumpstart Our Business Startup Act (JOBS), and in theory could make it easier for new companies to raise money, thereby creating new jobs. [Forbes]
