NBC: The Leno experiment fizzles
NBC has canceled Jay Leno’s daily, prime-time variety program, pulling the plug on “its closely watched experiment in rewriting the economic rules of broadcast TV,” said Lisa de Moraes in The Washington Post. The network had touted Leno’s show as “a low-cost alternative to expensive scripted programming,” but it proved unpopular with viewers, advertisers, and NBC’s local affiliates. When the Winter Olympics end in early March, the network will shift the comedian back to 11:35 p.m. to placate local stations. They complained that Leno’s prime-time “groaner” has been a drag on the local newscasts that follow it.
“Something resembling sanity has returned to the network,” said Mary McNamara in the Los Angeles Times. Leno was never cut out for prime time—the man “does one thing very well, and that is host a late-night show.” But NBC’s plan to keep its current late-night host, Conan O’Brien, didn’t fly. NBC wanted to give Leno a half-hour right after the news, followed by O’Brien at 12:05. O’Brien turned down the offer, saying, “The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn’t The Tonight Show.” O’Brien’s next move might be to Fox.
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Beer: Heineken buys Mexican brewer
Heineken will use shares valued at $7.6 billion to buy Femsa, the Mexican brewer that makes Dos Equis and Tecate, said Michael de la Merced and Chris Nicholson in The New York Times. The deal, which follows last year’s acquisition of Anheuser-Busch by Holland’s InBev and South African Breweries’ purchase of Miller in 2002, “further consolidates the industry into a few global players.”
Airlines: U.S. carriers fight for a piece of JAL
Delta and American Airlines are vying to forge a partnership with JAL, the near-bankrupt Japanese carrier, said Mariko Sanchanta and Atsuko Fukase in The Wall Street Journal. A consortium led by AMR, American’s parent company, this week offered to invest $1.4 billion in JAL, topping Delta’s recent offer of $2 billion. But Delta President Ed Bastian “suggested his company could go higher.” Although JAL is heavily indebted and “deeply unprofitable,” it has an extensive route system in Asia, “the world’s fastest-growing region for aviation.”
Scandals: Guilty plea in insider-trading case
The investigation of an alleged insider-trading ring that’s centered
on the Galleon hedge fund took a major turn last week, when management consultant Anil Kumar pleaded guilty to passing illegal
tips to Galleon CEO Raj Rajaratnam, said Sue McAllister in the Silicon Valley Mercury-News. Kumar, a former McKinsey & Co. director, said in federal court that he made $2.6 million “by feeding inside stock information to one of America’s richest men,” Rajaratnam. Kumar, 51, apologized to former colleagues “for the shame they have suffered.”
Retailing: Stores heartened by holiday rebound
“The good ship retail has stopped sinking,” said the Financial Times. Analysts last week estimated that December retail sales in U.S. stores open a year or longer climbed 3.8 percent, “thanks to a flurry of shopping activity just before and after Christmas Day.” And consultant Retail Metrics estimated that sales for the November-December holiday season grew 2 percent from the same period in 2008. Clothing stores turned in the best performances.
