the week that was
Big spender, Part I
The H.J. Heinz Co. will be airing a 30-second commercial during this year’s Super Bowl. To do so, Heinz will have paid about $4 million, the going rate for a 30-second spot, according to trade publication Adweek. It’s been 16 years since Heinz last ran an ad in the big game.
Big spender, Part II
An Alcoa Inc. company spent an estimated $110 million on bribes in the Middle East, and that illegal benevolence will cost Alcoa and the related company $384 million in penalties from the Internal Revenue Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice. Alcoa World Alumina pleaded guilty Thursday to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act; as a result, Alumina must pay $223 million in fines and Alcoa must pay $161 to the SEC. Alcoa World Alumina bribed a middleman to secure business with Aluminum Bahrain BSC.
It’s a gas, gas, gas
Three items for the price of one: A Bucks County energy startup called IMG Midstream wants to build natural gas power plants on sites across Pennsylvania, including one each in Greene County and Washington County. The plants would use natural gas from small, shallow gas producers who were having trouble getting their gas to larger buyers.
In Washington County, commissioners agreed to a lease that allows Range Resources and EQT Corp. to harvest natural gas below the county’s airport property, with drilling to take place on adjacent plots.
And in Beaver County, a small coal-fired power plant may try to pivot to natural gas before its owner decides whether to shut it down in 2017. Virginia-based AES Corp.’s 125-megawatt plant in Potter could convert to natural gas to take advantage of low prices, but a company spokesman said that no “serious” discussions about the conversion have taken place.
Meanwhile, in the East End ...
Google appears to be the “leading candidate to occupy at least part of a new six-story office building being built by developer Walnut Capital at the site of the former Reizenstein Middle School,” in Bakery Square, according to the PG’s Mark Belko. A mile away on Centre Avenue, the Shadyside Whole Foods is planning a major expansion, adding 15,200 square feet and 52 parking spaces, via a second level for both the store and its adjacent parking deck.
In case you missed it ...
... visit post-gazette.com/ business/ for the latest health care industry news. What you might have missed last week: A story about high charges at UPMC Shadyside-Presbyterian, another about Highmark’s CEO contesting the renovation bill at his Sewickley Heights mansion, and another about UPMC Health Plan customers having trouble filling prescriptions because of computer issues.
Bottomed out?
Or ongoing free fall? Gartner Inc., a tech research group, says worldwide personal computer shipments (that includes desktops and laptops, but not tablets or smartphones) dropped 10 percent from 2012 to 2013, in a report issued last week. The holiday season wasn’t kind, either, with a drop-off in the fourth quarter of 2013. About 315 million PCs shipped last year. Hewlett-Packard Co., the largest U.S. maker of PCs, saw its own year-over-year shipments decline by 7-9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013.