Business park adding building
Spokane Business and Industrial Park is constructing a $6.5 million building for Core-Mark International, a distributor of packaged products for the convenience retail industry.
According to a news release sent by Crown West Realty LLC, owner of the park, work will begin on the 100,000-square-foot facility within the next 30 days. Core-Mark International signed a long-term lease and will combine operations from two existing locations into the new building, sometime around mid-November.
Vandervert Construction Inc. is the contractor on the project, which will be built on about 10 acres located at the corner of Trent Avenue and Sullivan Road.
Caracas, Venezuela
Exxon Mobil told to pay more or go
Venezuela had a blunt message this week for Exxon Mobil, one of the world’s most powerful oil companies: Get off my crude-rich turf.
Venezuela is tightening its squeeze on the oil industry, telling oil companies to give the state a greater share of profits – or get out.
Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez on Wednesday said Exxon Mobil Corp. was one of the companies that would “prefer to leave … rather than adjust” to recent policy changes.
“We said we don’t want them to be here then,” Ramirez told the state TV broadcaster adding, if “we need them, we’ll call them.”
Exxon Mobil said Thursday it had no plans to pull out.
San Jose, Calif
Product lets users easily share files
A first-of-a-kind online data storage product seeks to ease the way consumers share their digital photos, music, video and documents.
For example, one can e-mail friends a link to new vacation photos, and the recipient can simply click on it without having to download additional software or register for an account – a common practice with existing online photo-sharing services.
Currently code-named Project Fusion, the offering from hard drive maker Maxtor Corp. and startup Fabrik Inc. will give consumers a large-capacity hard drive appliance that acts as a personal server. It comes with software to let owners access the files on that device over the Internet.
Minneapolis
Best Buy reports 13% profit hike
Robust sales of flat-panel televisions, digital music players and laptop computers propelled Best Buy Co. Inc. to a 13-percent increase in fourth-quarter profits, the nation’s largest consumer electronics retailer said Thursday.
Best Buy said online sales jumped by 50 percent and customers at its stores ran up larger bills, offsetting a slight drop in customer traffic.
Best Buy also announced that it would open its first test store in China by this time next year, marking its first retail foray into a country where it already has three offices for buying goods.
Earnings for the quarter ending Feb. 25 rose to $644 million, or $1.29 per share, from $572 million, or $1.13 per share, the previous year. That matched the consensus of analysts polled by Thomson Financial.