PODCAST: AMC in talks with Chinese buyer, ABC and Univision plan new cable channel
The billionaire investor who loves to buy stocks when all the rest of the big investors are scared says he bought a lot of stock last Friday. Well, his company Berkshire Hathaway did anyway. Warren Buffett told CNBC that Berkshire snapped up $60 billion worth of stock. But he didn’t say what exactly the company bought.
The Movie theater chain AMC Entertainment is apparently in talks to sell a big chunk of itself to a Chinese theater operator. That’s according to the New York Times. AMC has been around since 1920.
In international news, Dunkin’ Donuts is setting up shop in India. And Spain may bail out the troubled bank, Bankia.
To New York where the Sheraton Hotel is about to complete a $160 million dollar renovation. And according to USA Today, they have finally fixed the problem that is the number one source of guest complaints. Any guesses? I thought maybe it was that the water pressure in the shower was too low or that there aren’t enough towels. But in fact, according to the Sheraton’s manager, the number one guest complaint is that the 50-year-old hotel doesn’t have individual temperature controls in the rooms. And now, it does. Hopefully that didn’t eat up the whole $160 million.
ABC News has made a deal with Univision the two will create a 24-hour cable news channel targeting Hispanics in the U.S.
The satellite TV company DirecTV reported an uptick in profit this morning thanks to strong growth in Latin America, where almost 600,000 new subscribers signed up.
We look at a bill Senate is considering that would keep student loan interest rates from doubling.
Onto some robotics news. There’s a new a vacuum that can clean up after you and tell you how messy you are. Sharp Corporation in Japan has just relased a little self-propelled vacuum cleaner. The Coco-Robo is the size of a dinner plate it vacuums automatically and it talks. Actually it’s trilingual: it speaks, English, Japanese and Chinese. The little electronic smarty pants goes on sale next month for about $1,600.
To Nevada now, which has just approved the nations’ first autonomous vehicle license. It’s for one of Google’s self-driving cars, which uses video cameras and sensors to navigate. But Nevada is currently the only state that allows autonomous cars on its roads. So for now, what happens in Vegas will indeed be staying in Vegas.
We talk with world-renowned chef Charlie Trotter, whose restaurant in Chicago will be closing this summer after 25 years of service. Trotter explains his decision to shut down.
And finally, some sad news this morning that author Maurice Sendak has died at the age of 83. As of 2009, his most famous book, “Where the Wild Things Are” had sold 19 million copies around the world.
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