Media Navel Gaze: June 3, 2013
The Week Unpeeled
Summer seemed to sizzle a bit last week despite an end-of-week slump in the markets. (Although the Dow lost more than 200 points Friday—amid some reports of a leaked Fed report showing concerns about how QE2 easing may fare—the blue chip barometer ended May 1.86 percent higher and the S&P 2.08 percent higher.)
Quite a bit elsewhere, nonetheless:
- Moo Shu for everyone: China bid on Smithfield – the world’s largest hog farm and pork processor -- for approximately $4.7 billion, which if approved (and lots of leverage for US negotiators, regulators here!) would be the largest Chinese takeover of a US firm;
- Closer to home: Stakeholders okayed a plan for an Empire State Building IPO, expected to be $1 billion or the second largest REIT IPO ever, and no doubt a chance to light the top green;
- US home prices soared at its fastest pace in seven years;
- David Petraeus, former CIA chief and army general, joined KKR;
- BuzzFeed continues to make news of its own with the debut of CNN BuzzFeed, a YouTube channel;
- NewsCorp unveiled its new logo for its not-yet-launched publishing unit, a cursive version of its name (based on founder Rupert Murdoch’s handwriting), a decidedly non-digital look for a media group; and
- Playing Doubles?: Peter Lattman of The New York Times DealBook fame reviewed Jimmy Connors new memoir, “The Outsider,” showing perhaps Wall Street can easily translate into sport.
