Boeing Co. is looking into bidding on an estimated $2.2 billion contract to provide military planes to Brazil’s air force, the company said Thursday. Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems executive Joseph McAndrew spent three days in Brazil this week meeting with military officials and business and industrial leaders to “get a better understanding of how Boeing can satisfy some of the future defense requirements of Brazil,” company spokesman Damien Hills said.
Big cheese lives in Switzerland
When it comes to making the world’s best dairy products, the Swiss are still the “big cheeses.” Two cheese makers from Switzerland and one from Italy emerged Thursday as the top three at the 2008 World Championship Cheese Contest, beating out almost 2,000 competing entries. It was the second straight title for a Swiss cheese. The 2008 champion was Le Gruyere Switzerland, a gruyere produced by Michael Spycher in Wasen, a Swiss village of 300 people. Judges lauded the winning sample for its full and fruity taste. The gruyere sells in the U.S. for about $14 per pound. The contest can mean serious business for cheese makers, with past winners having seen sales spike after their wins. Brazil has conditioned the contract to the sharing of the technology behind whatever aircraft it buys, and so far the only country that has said it would allow such a transfer has been France, which is interested in selling Dassault’s Rafale fighter plane.
Microsoft executive joins ad agency
The top executive at Microsoft Corp.’s MSN media network, Joanne Bradford, is leaving the company to work for a Los Angeles advertising agency. Bradford will serve as Spot Runner’s executive vice president of national marketing services starting in March.
U.S. regulators seek more power
Economic policymakers on Thursday recommended stricter regulation of mortgage lenders as part of a broad effort to prevent a repeat of a credit crisis threatening to drive the country into recession. With problems in the credit and housing markets worsening, the Bush administration now seems to favor a larger role for government — an approach Republicans generally have had little appetite for. Recommendations from a presidential advisory group on financial markets cover mortgage lenders and other institutions, as well as investors, credit ratings agencies and regulators.
AOL to buy Bebo for $850 million
AOL stepped up its bid to boost traffic and advertising opportunities worldwide as the struggling Internet company agreed Thursday to pay $850 million for the online hangout Bebo. Although Bebo remains in the shadow of MySpace and Facebook, it is strong in some foreign markets, including Britain. According to comScore Inc., its audience outside the United States is engaged, spending more time on average there compared with the leading rivals. AOL executives say they are planning to tap that engagement to drive traffic to AOL’s other free, ad-supported site.
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