All posts by María Carmen

About María Carmen

Maria Carmen is a contributing editor to our global business news, and handles the translations into Spanish of the articles considered of utmost importance to the Spanish speaking world.

Air Fryers Continue to Grow in Sales

Food companies have taken notice of America’s love for air frying. Since 2017 Americans have spent an increasing amount of money on air fryers, with nearly $1 billion spent in 2022.

Several big name food brands continue to develop products that are air-fried or that can be made in an air-fryer. Campbell Soup’s Kettle Brand recently introduced air-fried potato chips to the market. Nestle is producing a number of frozen products that consumers are encouraged to prepare in the air-fryer, and Gorton’s Seafood, Kellogg, and Hormel Foods have added air-frying instructions to many of their frozen products. Tyson Foods’ air fried line has reached up to $100 million in sales.

According to CNBC, Adam Graves, Nestle U.S’s Pizza and Snacking Division President, says that air frying is “the biggest trend that we’re seeing right now in modern cooking”. 

Some people were skeptical that the air-frying trend, which boomed during the Covid-19 pandemic, would quickly disappear. But so far, the opposite has proven to be true. Now that people are expected to go back to the office, they appreciate that air-frying provides a quick, healthy method of cooking, and they continue to purchase air-fryers. 

Some estimates suggest that 60% of American homes now contain an air fryer, and while this makes it far less popular than the microwave, the air fryer has recently surpassed the grill to become the fourth most popular cooking appliance in America today.

New Ranking for US Business Schools’ MBA Programs

The Financial Times has released their assessment of the best MBA programs in the United States for 2016, the second time they have released such a survey.

Coming out on top for the second straight year is Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business for its MBA programs for entrepreneurship.

In second place is Babson College’s FW Olin Graduate School of Business. In the show position, the Darden School of Business of the University of Virginia.

In the fourth through seventh positions were:

  • Dartmouth’s Tuck school
  • Anderson of UCLA
  • UC Berkeley’s Haas
  • The Wharton School of Business

The schools’ rank was decided using several criteria, including the percentage of a school’s MBA’s went on to launch companies, and how many of those new businesses sere still around by the end of 2015.

GE Pulls Plug on Sale of Appliance Business to Electrolux

GE has decided to back out of a deal to sell its appliance business to the Swedish appliance company Electrolux rather than face the US Justice Department who wish to block the sale due to its apparent antitrust nature.

The $3.3 billion deal was first challenged by Justice this past summer when they stated in court that the forging of the two companies into one would lead to “less competition, higher prices and fewer options for millions of Americans.”

GE’s move to terminate the sale should entitle them to receive a $175 million break-up fee, a term they parties agreed on as an insurance in case the deal fell apart.

No verdict was yet reached by the Washington court considering the status of the sale. GE nevertheless exercised its right to terminate the agreement after 15 months of talks. The collapse of the deal is disappointing to Electrolux. The Swedish white goods company was hoping to make themselves into an appliance company giant able to compete with the likes of Whirlpool Corp and equivalent companies in Asia.

“We are disappointed but we are certainly not defeated,” Elextrolux Chief Executive Keith McLoughlin said.

Chris Lucas Dimite de su Puesto en Barclays

Chris Lucas
Lucas Dimitiendo

El director financiero de Barclays PLC, Chris Lucas, dejará el banco medio año antes de lo esperado debido a problemas de salud,  anunció el banco el miércoles.

El señor Lucas abandonaría su posición en la junta el último día de febrero del 2014, pero adelantará su partida para este viernes. La única explicación que Lucas, que tiene 52 años, dio para justificar la toma de su decisión fue “temas de salud.”

“Mi salud fue un tema clave detrás de mi decisión de demitir que fue anunciada en febrero. Me hubiera gustado poder seguir trabajando hasta el principio del año que viene,” dijo Lucas en un comunicado.

English Translation

BlackBerry Considera Opciones ya que las Ventas Bajan

BlackBerry 10 no está pasando la prueba
BlackBerry 10 no está pasando la prueba

BlackBerry 10 no está pasando la prueba

Veteranos en la producción de smartphone, BlackBerry ha tenido dificultades compitiendo contra los últimos dispositivos manuales como los iPhones y Androids. La decepción fue inevitable, ya que la esperada presentación de su último teléfono falló en producir la crucial respuesta en ventas que estaban esperando.

Ahora que la compañía tiene que afrontar algunas decisiones difíciles con respecto a la mejor forma de proceder de aquí en adelante. La junta de directores de BlackBerry creó un comité especial para examinar “estrategias alternativas” para incrementar el valor de la compañía y mejorar la velocidad a la cual la nueva plataforma del BlackBerry 10 es incorporada.

Entre las opciones consideradas por la empresa está ahora la posibilidad de empresas conjuntas, sociedades u otros cambios. Las acciones estadounidenses en la bolsa de la compañía con sede en Canadá se elevaron en un 10.5 por ciento el lunes, cuando el anuncio fue realizado, con un precio de $10.78.

BlackBerry anunció el lanzamiento de su nuevo sistema operativo en enero, esperando volverse más competitivo en el mercado de los smartphone. Las acciones del mercado continuaron bajando, sin embargo, la compañía está ahora en el cuarto puesto en la venta global de smartphone con el 2.9 por ciento del mercado.

Incluso con la reducción de precios, dijo Mike Walkley, un analista de Canaccord Genuity, las ventas de BlackBerry están bajando.

“Ahora tienen que tomar el próximo paso pensado en lo mejor para que la compañía y las acciones sobrevivan a largo plazo, porque las ventas del BlackBerry 10 no parecen prometedoras,” dijo Walkley.

English Translation