The daily business briefing: March 28, 2016

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1. Deal reportedly will raise California minimum wage to $15 an hour
2. Al Jazeera announces job cuts
3. Microsoft reportedly discusses backing bid for Yahoo sites
4. Dell reaches $3 billion deal to sell tech services business
5. Avon strikes deal with activist investors to head off proxy fight

published 28 March 2016

1. Deal reportedly will raise California minimum wage to $15 an hour

California lawmakers have reportedly reached a deal with labor unions to raise the state minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next few years, starting with an increase from $10 an hour to $10.50 next year. Gov. Jerry Brown (D) is expected to make a formal announcement as early as Monday. The tentative agreement would avert a potentially costly campaign to let voters consider a proposal to hike the state minimum wage this fall.

Al Jazeera announced Sunday that it will cut about 500 jobs, mostly in Qatar. The layoffs amount to just over 10 percent of its workforce. The news comes just over two months after the Qatar-based broadcaster decided to shut down its U.S. news channel. Qatar is a member of OPEC, and its economy has been hit hard by the sharp drop in oil prices over the last year. The network said the "workforce optimization initiative" was necessary to continue producing "high quality, independent, and hard-hitting journalism" in an evolving media landscape.

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Microsoft is in early talks with private equity firms about helping to finance a bid for struggling internet pioneer Yahoo. The firms interested in buying Yahoo assets reportedly approached Microsoft, which made no immediate comment. The discussions are still in a preliminary stage. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has been trying to turn the company around for four years, with limited results. The company is auctioning its core search, mail, and news sites as Google and Facebook dominate the competition for online advertisers.

Japan's NTT Data Corp. reportedly has agreed to buy Dell's IT services business for $3 billion. NTT Data, a unit of Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., announced the deal in a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange Monday. The deal will help NTT Data increase its sales outside Japan. Dell is selling some assets ahead of the completion of its record $67 billion takeover of software and storage systems provider EMC Corp.

Avon announced Monday that it had reached a deal with activist investors Barington Capital Group and NuOrion Partners to avoid a proxy fight. Avon will let Barington and NuOrion approve a new independent director for the embattled beauty-products company's board. Under the agreement, former FedEx executive Cathy Ross will join the company's board and the activist investors, which own 3 percent of Avon's stock, will not fight for board seats at the company's May 26 annual meeting.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.