1. Apple Pays $60 Million To End China IPad Dispute With Proview
Apple Inc. (AAPL) paid $60 million to settle a two-year-old legal dispute with Proview International Holdings Ltd. (334) regarding the iPad trademark in China.
The terms of the settlement agreement were reached on June 25 and Apple has transferred the funds as agreed, the Higher People’s Court of Guangdong Province announced in a statement on its website today. Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu didn’t immediately return calls to her office and mobile phones.
The dispute had centered on whether Proview’s Taiwan unit, which Apple paid 35,000 pounds ($54,800) in 2009 to use the iPad name in mainland China, had the right to sell it or whether that rested with Proview’s Shenzhen unit, which held the mark. Apple sued Proview Shenzhen in 2010 claiming ownership of the iPad trademark in China and lost. Its appeal of that case was heard on Feb. 29, and the two sides had engaged in court-sponsored mediation since then.
Before the agreement, Proview had applied to Chinese customs to block shipments of Apple’s iPad tablets in and out of China, and asked local retailers to stop sales of the product.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-02/apple-pays-60-million-to-end-china-ipad-dispute-with-proview.html
2. Billionaire Rinehart Willing To Buy Back GVK Shares
http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2012/02/02/1226261/318196-120203-gina-rinehart.jpg
Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart, who sold a majority stake in her Hancock Prospecting Pty’s coal projects to India’s GVK Group last year, said she is happy to buy back shares in the venture if it needs funds.
“I have told GVK I would love to be in the project more,” Rinehart told reporters on a visit to the southern city of Hyderabad, where she meet officials of the group.
Foreign investors and banks have expressed an interest in the coal project, in which GVK owns a 79 percent stake and Hancock has 21 percent, said Rinehart, who is Asia’s richest woman. Her fortune is estimated at $18.4 billion by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Foreign investors and banks have expressed an interest in the coal project, in which GVK owns a 79 percent stake and Hancock has 21 percent, said Rinehart, who is Asia’s richest woman. Her fortune is estimated at $18.4 billion by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-01/billionaire-rinehart-says-she-s-willing-to-buy-back-gvk-shares.html
Background:
GVK, a Hyderabad based company want to mine coal in Queensland's Galilee Basin, environement activists like Greenpeace say that it will destroy the local biodeiversity. Gina Rinehart a billionaire who made her riches in mining has a small stake in the mine.
3. AB InBev buys out Modelo for $20 bn
Brussels, London: Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s biggest brewer, will swallow the half of Grupo Modelo it does not already own for $20.1 billion in the latest in a string of deals by big brewers looking for growth in emerging markets.
Modelo, founded in 1925, is Mexico’s biggest brewer with a 50%-plus market share in a virtual duopoly with Heineken’s FEMSA Cerveza in the world’s fourth-most-profitable beer market. Corona is the biggest imported beer in the lucrative US market.
4. Nestle in talks to raise E7-billion acquisition loan
Nestle has been talking to banks about raising a new 7-billion-euro syndicated loan to help fund its $11.85-billion takeover of Pfizer Nutrition. Nestle said in late April the acquisition would be fully debt-financed through internal cash resources, existing facilities and the bond markets. The new loan would give Nestle enough liquidity until the deal is approved, which is expected to be in the first quarter of 2013, if the acquisition goes ahead.
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/ab-inbev-buys-out-modelo-for-20-bn/968510/0
