NEWS AT A GLANCE
MillerCoors lands on Chicago
MillerCoors LLC, the new joint U.S. venture of beer giants SABMiller and Molson Coors Brewing, selected Chicago as its headquarters. Chicago was a compromise for Milwaukee-based Miller and Golden, Colo.-based Coors, who started life as a combined entity July 1. (Chicago Sun-Times) Chicago beat out suburban Dallas, after pledging $20 million in state and city subsidies. In return, Chicago gets 300-400 high-paying white-collar jobs. (Chicago Tribune) MillerCoors will also invest $100 million to upgrade the Coors plant in Golden so it can produce a wider range of brews and other products. MillerCoors was formed to better compete with Anheuser-Busch. (The Denver Post)
Tire maker Continental rejects $17.8 billion takeover bid
Germany’s Continental AG, the No. 2 European tire maker, rejected an unsolicited $17.8 billion takeover offer from ball-bearing firm Schaeffler Group. Continental called the offer too low and possibly illegal, and criticized it as lacking any “strategic rationale” and as bad for Continental shareholders. Continental is about three times the size of family-owned Schaeffler. (Reuters) The offer is 29 percent higher than Continental’s share price on July 11, before word of the possible acquisition surfaced. Schaeffler said it already controls about 36 percent of the firm’s voting rights. (Bloomberg)
Intel beats expectations
Top computer chip maker Intel reported a 25 percent jump in quarterly profit, to $1.6 billion, handily beating Wall Street expectations. The growth was fueled by strong global demand for chips, especially for laptops; Intel said demand will continue in the current quarter. (The New York Times) The strong results allayed concerns about Intel and the broader tech sector. “Intel has product momentum now, widening the gap with competitors,” said analyst Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies. (MarketWatch) On that note, European regulators are preparing new antitrust charges, The Wall Street Journal reported, alleging that Intel enticed European retailers to shun PCs with chips by Intel rival AMD. (Reuters)
It’s an Olympics party, and CEOs line up
More than 1,000 CEOs are expected to attend the Beijing Olympics next month, and they’re going for more than the games. As booming China celebrates its biggest international event yet, the corporate bigwigs whose companies do business there—or want to—see the Olympics as a can’t-miss event. And China’s rolling out the red carpet, as much as it can—cooled sky boxes are full, limos are all booked, there aren’t enough front row seats at key events. Still, “for those who wish to be important in business in China for the next 20 years, people in China will ask you if you were here during the Olympics,” says Beijing-based businessman Matt Estes. “And if your answer is ‘No,’ they’ll ask, ‘Why?’” (The Wall Street Journal)
