All posts by Jonathon Bowes

About Jonathon Bowes

Jonathan Bowes started his career in banking. After a few years, he took courses in business and finance and worked his way up the corporate ladder. Today, while writing part-time for Business District, Bowes assists talented people to find jobs in the field of economics. Contact Bowes at Jonathon[at]businessdistrict.com

Lawyer for Germanwings Crash Victims Considering US Venue for Lawsuit

News, , ,

Elmar Giemulla, the lawyer representing 39 families whose loved ones died in the Germanwings plane crash is weighing the possibility of taking his lawsuit to the United States. The advantage to moving the lawsuit to the US is American law allows for much larger settlements than in Germany.

Prosecutors who have investigated the March crash of the A320 Airbus have come to the conclusion that the co-pilot intentionally crashed the plane, killing all 150 people on board. The plane was flying from Barcelona to Duesseldorf.

Two of the victims were American citizens, and the co-pilot did some of his training in the United States. These facts, according to Giemulla, will allow him to bring his lawsuit to the US. The advantage to suing in the US is that much more money can be collected, for instance, the deceased future earnings and the emotional damage done by the event can be calculated into the settlement. In Germany, where more than half of the victims had citizenship, does not allow those calculations.

Lufthansa, which owns Germanwings, has already offered the victims’ families about $108,000 per family, depending on the size of the family. Giemulla says that offer is way too low. He does say that he will discuss the issue again with Lufthansa before he files any lawsuit.

Shire Buys Foresight Biotherapeutics

Health Tech, , , ,

Dublin-based Shire announced its all-cash purchase of privately held Foresight Biotherapeutics, expanding the pharmaceutical company’s ability to develop medicine against viral and bacterial forms of conjunctivitis.

UK-listed Shire has been increasing its investment in eyecare while also pushing for approval from regulators for its own treatment for dry-eye disease, lifitegrast.

“Ophthalmics is a highly attractive growth area for Shire and this acquisition allows us to strengthen our presence,” said Flemming Ornskov, Shire chief executive.

Foresight’s drug, known as FST-100 is a perfect companion medicine to lifitegrast for a pharmaceutical company. If both obtain approval for use then together they will “address two of the leading reasons people seek eyecare treatment,” Mr Ornskov said.

Last year Shire created a dedicated opthalmics division, separate from its main business selling treatments for rare diseases and attention deficit Hyperactivity disorder.

Shire purchased Foresight for $300 million as it’s stock is trading at near-record prices of £57.30, considerably more than the £52.48 per share that AbbVie of the US tried to pay last year in its takeover bid, which eventually fell through.

Ford Moving Small Car Assembly Off-Shore

Automobile Industry, , , ,

Underscoring the difficulty US automakers have making fuel-efficient cars stateside, Ford Motor Co, announced it will be moving its Focus compact cars and C-Max hybrids out of its Michigan Assembly Plant near Detroit. The move is scheduled for 2018.

The announcement has placed worry about the long-term viability of what is one of Ford’s largest US manufacturing plants. It also casts a pall over a meeting, scheduled for just a few days from now, between Ford executives and heads of the United Auto Workers Union to forge a new labor agreement. It is expected that the UAW will ask for higher wages and keeping the status quo on healthcare. Ford has proposed cuts in healthcare benefits to trim expenses.

The company did not announce where production of the Focus and C-Max will move to. Mexico is a possibility since less than three months ago Ford said it was planning to spend $2.5 billion on transmission and engine plants in Mexico. The company also has assembly plants in Mexico which build midsize Fusion sedans and small Fiestas.

Kristina Adamski, spokeswoman for Ford, said that all decisions Ford makes is based on the necessity to keep the company competitive.

“We actively are pursuing future vehicle alternatives to produce at Michigan Assembly and will discuss this issue with United Auto Workers leadership as part of the upcoming negotiations,” she said.

Most Expensive Zip Code Moves East

Lifestyle

Wondering where the country’s most wealthy dwell? For the past two years the zip code of distinction has been 94027, whose numbers represent Atherton, California in what is known as Silicon Valley.

Atherton attracts some of the world’s most influential hi-tech execs such as Paul Allen, the cofounder of Microsoft, HP CEO Meg Whitman, and Eric Schmidt, Chairman of Google. The median income in Atherton, according to data from the US Census Bureau, is just short of a quarter million dollars: $220,583.

That’s yesterday’s news. The new reigning zip code for the country’s most wealthy is 11962, a Long Island community called Sagaponack. In Sagaponach the median sale price for a home from January 2014 until June 2015 was $5,125,000, according to the real estate listing site Property Shark. In Atherton the median price was only $5,050,000.

Sagaponack is only two hours’ drive from New York City, in the Hamptons on the south shore of Long Island. Pop musician Billy Joel lives in Sagaponack, while the Clintons like to vacation in the town. Ira Rennert built a $248 million estate there composed of three swimming pools, a 164-seat private theater, and a car garage with a 100-car capacity.

Amazon to Extend Its Loan Program to Sellers

News, , , ,

Beginning later this year Amazon will extend its business loan program to sellers in eight additional countries where credit can make a huge difference in that company’s success. Amazon, the giant on-line retail platform, has had a business loan program for small sellers in just two countries, Japan and the United States. Known as Amazon Lending, this program was launched in 2012 and is run as an invite-only lending program not available to all Amazon sellers.

The new countries which will become part of this unique program are Canada, China, Germany, France, Italy, India, the United Kingdom and Spain. Amazon loans are geared to helping small sellers better compete for new vendors and taking more market share.

Amazon is not alone in introducing loan programs: eBay’s PayPal and Alibaba Group Holdings are also extending credit to help boost their vendor base. Some analysts have voiced skepticism about these trends, saying that retailers do not properly assess the credit market in which the sellers are operating and therefore could be taking on too much risk. In countries like China and India small businesses have high rates of failure.

Amazon said that risk is not a problem for them since they offer loans based on internal data and also because they take loan payments directly from the profits from sales that it pays their sellers.