Disney buys firm behind Star Wars

30 October 2012 Last updated at 17:25 ET

Disney is buying Lucasfilm, the company behind the Star Wars films, from its chairman and founder George Lucas for $ 4.05bn (£2.5bn).

Mr Lucas said: “It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of film-makers.”

In a statement announcing the purchase, Disney said it planned to release a new Star Wars film, episode seven, in 2015.

That will be followed by episodes eight and nine and then one new movie every two or three years, the company said.

The last Star Wars film was 2005′s Revenge of the Sith, and Disney said it believed there was “substantial pent-up demand”.

Disney will pay about half in cash and half in stock, issuing 40 million Disney shares in the transaction.

The deal follows Disney’s acquisitions of Pixar studios for $ 7.4bn in 2006 and Marvel comics for $ 4.2bn in 2009.

“Our valuation of Lucasfilm is roughly comparable to the value we placed on Marvel when we announced that acquisition in 2009,” Disney said, adding that the valuation was almost entirely driven by the Star Wars franchise.

Transition

George Lucas launched Lucasfilm in 1971 and the first Star Wars film was released in 1977.

“For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next,” Mr Lucas said.

“I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime.”

Mr Lucas will continue as a creative consultant.

Kathleen Kennedy, currently co-chairman of Lucasfilm, will become president of the firm and will be the executive producer on the new Star Wars films.

Lucasfilm is also the production company behind the Indiana Jones franchise, and fantasy films Willow and Labyrinth.

Michael Corty, analyst at Morning Star, said Disney’s deal was clearly part of a pattern in buying new franchises.

“Pixar was the first big one, then Marvel, and now this one here,” he said.

“Because Lucas is private, I would assume most investors would be surprised.”

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Hurricane’s death toll rises to 65 in Caribbean

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — As Americans braced Sunday for Hurricane Sandy, Haiti was still suffering.

Officials raised the storm-related death toll across the Caribbean to 65, with 51 of those coming in Haiti, which was pelted by three days of constant rains that ended only on Friday.

As the rains stopped and rivers began to recede, authorities were getting a fuller idea of how much damage Sandy brought on Haiti. Bridges collapsed. Banana crops were ruined. Homes were underwater. Officials said the death toll might still rise.

“This is a disaster of major proportions,” Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe told The Associated Press, adding with a touch of hyperbole, “The whole south is under water.”

The country’s ramshackle housing and denuded hillsides are especially vulnerable to flooding. The bulk of the deaths were in the southern part of the country and the area around Port-au-Prince, the capital, which holds most of the 370,000 Haitians who are still living in flimsy shelters as a result of the devastating 2010 earthquake.

Santos Alexis, mayor of the southern city of Leogane, said Sunday that the rivers were receding and that people were beginning to dry their belongings in the sun.

“Things are back to being a little quiet,” Alexis said by telephone. “We have seen the end.”

Sandy also killed 11 in Cuba, where officials said it destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of houses. Deaths were also reported in Jamaica, the Bahamas and Puerto Rico. Authorities in the Dominican Republic said the storm destroyed several bridges and isolated at least 130 communities while damaging an estimated 3,500 homes.

Jamaica’s emergency management office on Sunday was airlifting supplies to marooned communities in remote areas of four badly impacted parishes.

In the Bahamas, Wolf Seyfert, operations director at local airline Western Air, said the domestic terminal of Grand Bahamas‘ airport received “substantial damage” from Sandy’s battering storm surge and would need to be rebuilt.

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NBC sets premiere dates for “1600 Penn,” Eva Longoria series

LOS ANGELES, Oct 30 (TheWrap.com) – NBC announced midseason premiere dates Tuesday for three new series, including the Bill Pullman presidential comedy “1600 Penn” and the new Eva Longoria relationship series “Ready for Love.”

The network also announced the premiere date for the drama “Deception,” which was formerly known as “Infamous.”

In addition to the series premieres, the network announced return dates for several shows, including the on-the-bubble comedy “Community,” which will return to its previous Thursday night timeslot.

“Deception,” a dark family mystery starring Meagan Good and Victor Garber, premieres on Monday, January 7 at 10 p.m. It will follow “The Biggest Loser,” which starts its new season with a two-night premiere on January 6 and 7.

“1600 Penn,” starring Bill Pullman as the president in a comedy about the First Family, premieres Thursday, January 10 at 9:30. The series, which also stars Jenna Elfman and Josh Gad, was co-created by “Modern Family” director Jason Winer. It will join a slightly altered Thursday lineup.

“Parks and Recreation” moves to 8:30 on January 17, and “Community,” returns to 8 p.m. on February 7.

“Ready for Love,” a reality show executive produced by former “Desperate Housewives” star Eva Longoria, will premiere Sunday, March 31 at 8 p.m.

(Editing By Zorianna Kit)

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¿Las demandas por los efectos adversos de Neurontin aumentan el gasto en salud?

NUEVA YORK (Reuters Health) – En el 2004, el laboratorio

Pfizer aceptó declararse culpable y pagar más de 430 millones de

dólares por la acusación de haber comercializado el

antiepiléptico Neurontin ilegalmente para usos no aprobados.

Ahora, un estudio publicado en Journal of Clinical Psychiatry

cuestiona si el juicio terminó aumentando el gasto en otros

antiepilépticos en lugar de reducir los usos sin aprobación.

Los médicos pueden recetar fármacos con usos no autorizados

por las autoridades regulatorias de Estados Unidos, pero la

industria tiene prohibido comercializarlos con esos fines.

“En los últimos años hubo juicios importantes para penalizar

a las empresas farmacéuticas por la promoción ilegal de usos no

aprobados”, dijo Meredith Chace, investigadora especializada en

políticas farmacéuticas de la Facultad de Medicina de Harvard,

Boston. “Sospechábamos que eso podía tener consecuencias no

intencionales.”

Con su equipo analizó información del período 2001-2005 de

los seguros de salud federales Medicare y Medicaid. Se

concentraron en el tratamiento del trastorno bipolar, uno de los

distintos usos sin aprobar de Neurontin (gabapentina).

Desde la primera noticia publicada sobre el juicio en marzo

del 2002, la participación de Neurontin en el mercado de los

antiepilépticos que se utilizan para tratar el trastorno bipolar

se redujo del 21 al 15 por ciento.

En tanto, se disparó o siguió creciendo ese uso sin

aprobación de otros cuatro fármacos (uno de ellos aprobado más

adelante). Hasta el gasto en Neurontin aumentó, a pesar de que

se redujo su indicación.

“Desafortunadamente, el estudio sugiere que los médicos

siguieron indicando medicamentos sin efectividad probada para el

tratamiento del trastorno bipolar”, dijo el doctor Daniel

Carlat, psiquiatra y director del Proyecto Pew de Indicaciones

Médicas, que promueve políticas para limitar las relaciones

entre los médicos y la industria que afecten la atención de los

pacientes.

¿NO TAN DAÑINO COMO SE ESPERABA?

El nuevo estudio detalla que en el 2000, dos años antes de

que se conocieran las noticias sobre el juicio, las ventas de

Neurontin eran de casi 1.000 millones de dólares, principalmente

por sus usos no autorizados. Chace opinó que la cobertura

negativa de los medios influyó en parte en la caída de las

ventas de Neurontin y que es posible que el fabricante

aumentara los precios para anticiparse.

El equipo estima que el gasto gubernamental en

antiepilépticos para el tratamiento del trastorno bipolar

aumentó en más de 200 millones de dólares después del juicio,

sin incluir los potenciales cambios de indicaciones del mismo

producto para otras enfermedades, como la migraña, el síndrome

de piernas inquietas y distintos trastornos asociados con el

dolor.

“Las consecuencias no esperadas incluyen la sustitución de

otros productos similares y un aumento del gasto general”, dijo

Chace a Reuters Health.

Agregó que los ensayos clínicos habían demostrado que

Neurontin no es efectivo para el tratamiento del trastorno

bipolar, aunque con algunas excepciones.

Una limitación del estudio es no haber incluido información

sobre la inversión de la industria en la comercialización de sus

productos. Además, el cargo de Carlat está parcialmente

financiado con un subsidio que surgió del arreglo comercial de

la demanda contra Pfizer.

“Se desconoce si el juicio fue la causa del aumento de la

indicación de antiepilépticos y, por lo tanto, del gasto en

salud -dijo Carlat por e-mail-. El estudio no controló los

efectos de otros factores en las decisiones médicas, como la

estrategia de comercialización de otros productores de

antiepilépticos y la información científica de la efectividad de

otros fármacos.”

El doctor Randall S. Stafford, que no participó del estudio,

opinó sobre la posibilidad de que el juicio “no haya dañado a

Pfizer tanto como se esperaba”. Dijo por e-mail que “se estaba

venciendo la patente de Neurontin y el juicio sólo aceleró el

cambio deseado al uso sin aprobar de Lyrica”, un antiepiléptico

(pregabalina) que aún conserva su patente y fue motivo de otro

juicio similar contra Pfizer, que aceptó un convenio por 2.300

millones de dólares en el 2009.

Pfizer no realizó comentarios sobre resultados asociados “con

un acuerdo de hace una década”.

Chace consideró que las autoridades deberían trabajar con las

asociaciones médicas para informar a los profesionales sobre

estas crisis para que actúen adecuadamente.

FUENTE: Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, online 16 de octubre

del 2012

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Steve Jobs’ ‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ Is Out at Apple

Apple (AAPL) today announced the departure of Scott Forstall, the company’s senior vice president of its mobile operating system, iOS. The departure was abrupt, but perhaps not entirely unexpected. Forstall had been a longtime and talented member of Apple’s executive team, but as Bloomberg Businessweek reported in a cover story last year, he was also a polarizing figure within the company. He was not without internal rivals and enemies: As we said in our 2011 article, Jonathan Ive, Apple’s design chief, and Bob Mansfield, the company’s head of technology, would rarely take meetings with him unless the Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, was also present.

Forstall is a talented, able performer at various who brought a tremendous amount of energy to many product rollouts at Apple. Which is why his absence from the recent iPad Mini announcement raised some eyebrows. At any major release of a new iOS device, Forstall would have been expected to speak to journalists who gathered in San Jose last week.

Overseeing iOS put Forstall in a tremendous position of power, as Apple’s mobile operating system has increasingly been where the action is in new Apple products and services, but his tenure had plenty of speed bumps. The company’s rollout of iCloud has been better than the previous attempts with Mobile Me and .Mac—iCloud has generated complaints about how hard it is to configure. Forstall was an early supporter of Apple’s purchase of Siri, which led to the voice-activated assistant of the same name—Siri’s been criticized for reliability issues. Add to that the recent Maps issue, in which CEO Cook had to release an apology to Apple customers. It’s quite possible that Forstall, for all his agreed-upon talent and dedication to the company, had little to defend himself with when an reorganization was proposed and he had few friends in the executive suite in Cupertino.

Being demanding or prickly is fine when you’re doing everything right (or, in Steve Jobs’s case, when it’s your company). But if things start to go south on you, it can leave you awfully exposed, with few people leaping to your defense or aid (ask A-Rod). Maybe nice guys finish last, but at least they finish.

Businessweek.com — Top News

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Pole gets 30 years for killing 6 on Channel Island

LONDON (AP) — A Polish builder who killed six people, including his wife and children, on the British Channel Island of Jersey has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Damian Rzeszowski, 31, carried out the knife attack in August 2011 at his home. He was said to have become depressed after his wife admitted to an affair.

Rzeszowski was convicted of six counts of manslaughter but cleared of murder. On Monday, Judge Michael Birt sentenced him to 30 years in jail for each victim, but the sentences are to run concurrently.

Rzeszowski’s victims were his wife Izabela Rzeszowska, 30; 5-year-old daughter, Kinga; 2-year-old son, Kacper; father-in-law, Marek Gartska, 56; his wife’s friend Marta De La Haye, 34; and her 5-year-old daughter, Julia.

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Apple software, retail chiefs out in sweeping overhaul

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook on Monday replaced the heads of its software and retail units in the company’s most sweeping executive shake-up in a decade following embarrassing problems with its new mapping program and unpopular store-related decisions.

Software chief Scott Forstall, who oversaw the launch of the flawed mapping software and much criticized Siri voice-enabled assistant, will leave Apple next year and serve as an advisor to Cook in the meantime.

Forstall, seen as a polarizing figure inside Apple, had been billed as one of the future candidates to take the top job at Apple. He was the executive behind the panned Apple Maps app that the company announced with much fanfare in summer.

The moves, which come a little more than a year into Cook’s tenure as CEO, were described by Apple as a way to increase “collaboration” across its hardware, software and services business.

“These changes show that Tim Cook is stamping his authority on the business,” Ben Wood, analyst with CCS Insight, said. “Perhaps disappointed with the Maps issues, Forstall became the scapegoat.”

Critics of the maps debacle, which led Cook to apologize to customers, had been calling for Forstall’s head. “Does Apple have a Scott Forstall problem?” Fortune editor Philip Elmer Dewitt wrote on Sept 29.

The moves hand over substantially more responsibility to Cue, the head of Internet Software and Services who helped create the iTunes music store and App Store. The 23-year Apple veteran already is in charge of Cloud services and will take on Apple Maps and Siri.

Apple said a search is underway for a new retail chief to replace John Browett and that the retail team would report directly to Cook. Browett had riled up the retail store staff when he decided to reduce the number of retail employees.

Browett took over as head of Apple’s retail stores earlier this year, replacing Ron Johnson, who went on to become the CEO of JC Penney.

Last week Apple delivered a second straight quarter of disappointing financial results, and iPad sales fell short of Wall Street’s targets, marring its record of consistently blowing past investors’ expectations.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Richard Chang)

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Taylor Swift to co-host Grammy nominations in Nashville

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Country-pop star Taylor Swift will co-host the Grammy nominations live on television from Nashville, the capital of country music, the Recording Academy said on Monday.

Swift, 22, who has won six Grammy awards, will join rapper-actor LL Cool J to announce nominees in some of the major categories during a one-hour live telecast on December 5, featuring performances from country artist Luke Bryan and pop-rockers Maroon 5.

The singer is currently on a touring blitz to promote her latest album, “Red”, and has become an awards show favorite, most recently premiering her new single at the MTV Video Music Awards in September.

Swift’s addition to the roster is part of the Grammy organization’s celebration of country music this year, moving the nominations concert from Los Angeles to Nashville, home to the Grand Ole Opry and dozens of recording studios that have spawned artists such as Swift, Carrie Underwood and Lady Antebellum.

Organizers began televising the nominations in a live show five years ago in a bid to boost TV viewership for the annual Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles in February. This year, 39.9 million viewers tuned in to see British singer Adele sweep the awards with six major wins.

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Dale Hudson)

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Hurricane Sandy: Tips to Make Tap Water Safe for Drinking

Oct 29, 2012 7:10pm

If water supply becomes contaminated, you can either boil water for one minute or make water safe with bleach.

Here is how:

If tap water is clear:

1. Add eight drops of household unscented liquid bleach to one gallon of water.

2. Mix well and wait 30 minutes or more before drinking.

If tap water is cloudy:

1. Add 16 drops of unscented household liquid bleach to one gallon of water.

2. Mix well and wait 30 minutes or more before drinking.

In addition:

• Never mix bleach with ammonia or other cleaners.


• Open windows and doors to get fresh air when you use bleach.

For more information, go to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.

SHOWS: World News

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Economy ‘shows signs of optimism’

28 October 2012 Last updated at 12:22 ET

There is “reason for some optimism” for the UK economy, the Bank of England’s deputy governor Charlie Bean has said.

He cautioned against “getting over-excited” after new GDP data showed the recession was over – pointing out the Olympics had given a one-off boost.

But Mr Bean said there were “signs of progress” from the eurozone and banking crises and inflation should be lower.

Labour said families were still being squeezed but ministers reject claims austerity policies were hitting growth.

Last week’s official gross domestic product figures, which measure the value of everything produced in the country, showed the economy grew by 1.0% in the three months from July to September.

It had been in recession for the previous nine months and has still not recovered the levels of output seen before the financial crisis in 2008.

‘The right path’

Speaking on the Murnaghan show on Sky News, Mr Bean said: “The big picture here is of an economy that has been bumping along the bottom for two years.

Continue reading the main story

The statistics are one thing, how people feel is another”

End Quote Chuka Umunna Shadow business secretary

“We do think there is reason for some optimism going forward. Some of the headwinds we have been struggling against in the past couple of years will be abating somewhat.

“Most particularly, we have seen a big squeeze on households’ real spending power… Going forward, that squeeze should not be so intense.”

Labour’s shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna told the programme families and businesses were still struggling.

Official GDP figures showed the UK economy had contracted by 6.4% between the start of 2008 and the middle of 2009, and had since recovered about half of that lost output. The level of output in the third quarter of 2012 was almost exactly the same as it had been in the third quarter of 2011.

“It is good news that, with the help of the Olympics and after the longest double-dip recession since the Second World War, we saw a positive number last week,” Mr Umunna said.

“But I think the statistics are one thing, how people feel is another… All we saw last week was essentially things going back to the position we were in last year.”

Interviewed on the BBC’s Sunday Politics, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander accepted the impact of the eurozone crisis and commodity price rises meant “growth has been much slower than we would have liked over the last two to three years”.

But he added: “We knew when we came into office that they were going to be difficult but I don’t think that means that the path we chose was wrong…

“If we hadn’t gone for the austerity programme that we did – the deficit reduction, the spending reductions and so on – then our economy would have been in a much worse position.”

BBC News – Business

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