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Roundup: Business Records Management sold for $77M; Cliffs to sell W. Va. mines for $175M; more | TribLIVE.com
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Roundup: Business Records Management sold for $77M; Cliffs to sell W. Va. mines for $175M; more

Business Records Management sold to Ga. firm for $77M

Business Records Management was acquired by a Georgia-based document storage and management company in a $77 million deal, the company said. The North Side-based company was bought by Recall Holdings Ltd., a publicly traded firm based in Norcross, Ga. The deal is Recall's sixth acquisition since July and will add about $21 million in annual revenue to Recall's top line. Business Records Management, a privately held company that had been growing in recent years through acquisitions, has more than 120 employees and operations in Erie and Johnstown, in addition to the North Side.

Cliffs Natural Resources to sell W.Va. mines for $175M

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. agreed to sell part of its struggling coal division for $175 million, in cash, the latest move by the mining company to exit higher-cost operations to focus on its U.S iron ore business. Coronado Coal II LLC will buy Cliffs' assets in Logan County, W.Va., which include three mines producing metallurgical coal for steelmaking, and also assume some liabilities. Cleveland-based Cliffs expects to record a pretax loss on the sale of as much as $425 million in the fourth quarter, it said in a statement. Cliffs said it will use the cash proceeds to pay down debt. The company is suffering from plunging prices for iron ore and metallurgical coal, triggered by a slowdown in the Chinese steel industry. In October, Cliffs' credit rating was cut to junk by Standard & Poor's, and the company took a $5.7 billion writedown on its mining assets.

Viewers watch less TV, stream more, report finds

Americans are turning away from live TV on the tube and tuning in to streaming services, a Nielsen report says. That's bad news for cable and satellite TV providers. Americans are increasingly watching TV shows and movies on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon streaming and other services. CBS and HBO have announced standalone streaming services as well. About 45 percent of Americans stream television shows at least once a month, according to research firm eMarketer. That number is expected to increase to 53 percent, or 175 million people, by 2018, it says. According to the Nielsen report, which came out Wednesday, the average daily time spent watching live TV fell 12 minutes in the third quarter to four hours and 32 minutes. That means it dropped nearly 4 percent to 141 hours per month. Meanwhile, time spent watching streaming services jumped 60 percent to nearly 11 hours each month.

Microsoft shareholders approve CEO pay of $84M

Microsoft shareholders have approved an $84 million pay package for CEO Satya Nadella, despite concerns raised by an investor advisory group. The tech giant has seen strong financial performance, and its stock is up roughly 30 percent for the year. But the advisory group, Institutional Shareholder Services, said it has “significant concerns” about the size of stock grants awarded to Nadella, who was named CEO in February. The group also cited plans to award future stock grants without setting what it considers adequate performance standards. Nadella's pay largely consists of stock grants that won't vest for several years. Microsoft said the grants are an incentive for strong performance. Microsoft said shareholders approved the deal at the company's annual meeting Wednesday, but detailed voting results were not immediately available.

Services firms expansion rate nears its record mark

Services firms expanded at a faster pace in November, a signal that overall economic growth should remain robust. The Institute for Supply Management said Wednesday that its services index rose to 59.3 last month, up from 57.1 in October. The index reached 59.6 in August, the highest in eight years. Any reading over 50 indicates expansion. The new orders component of the index climbed to 61.4, which was 2.3 points higher than the October reading of 59.1. But the employment component slid 2.9 percentage points to 56.7 in November. Despite the decrease in the hiring component, the level still suggests “a fairly decent rate of growth” with hiring, said Tony Nieves, chair of the ISM's non-manufacturing survey committee.

Productivity increases at 2.3% rate in 3rd quarter

Workers' productivity increased in the July-September quarter at a slightly faster pace than previously estimated, while labor costs declined for a second straight quarter. Productivity, the amount of output per hour of work, increased at an annual rate of 2.3 percent in the third quarter, while labor costs fell at a rate of 1 percent, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. In its first estimate, the government had put productivity growth at a slightly slower 2 percent and said labor costs had risen a tiny 0.2 percent. The strengthening of productivity growth combined with a faster drop in labor costs should reassure the Federal Reserve that there is little threat of unwanted inflation pressures harming economic growth any time soon. Greater productivity is the key factor determining rising living standards. It enables companies to pay their workers more without having to increase prices.