In brief: Teens suing Facebook
LOS ANGELES – Two Los Angeles County teenagers are suing Facebook, claiming the social network effectively sold their names and images to advertisers without parental permission.
The lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles challenges a Facebook feature that allows members to note that they like an advertised service or product. Facebook broadcasts those endorsements to the user’s friends.
The lawsuit also claims minors unwittingly endorse Facebook when people typing their names in a search engine are steered to a Facebook sign-up page.
The plaintiffs say Palo Alto-based Facebook is violating a California law that requires parental consent for children to make commercial endorsements. The teens seek unspecified damages.
Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said the lawsuit is meritless.
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES – Mexico’s oldest airline, Mexicana de Aviacion, will suspend operations today, with its parent company late Friday saying that it’s unable to provide services to passengers as it grapples with financial troubles.
Airline operator Grupo Mexicana in a statement on its Web site said operations at Mexicana de Aviacion, Mexico’s largest air carrier by passenger traffic, will be suspended indefinitely as of noon local time.
The company said it “profoundly laments” the inconvenience that its passengers will face, but worsening financial conditions prevent it from continuing to run at this point.
Mexicana de Aviacion has been operating for 89 years, according to the statement.
MarketWatch
Numerica Credit Union assets have reached $1 billion, Chief Executive Officer Dennis Cutter said Friday.
He said the Spokane-based credit union reached the benchmark because of internal growth, and the merger with the School Employees Federal Credit Union of Richland in May.
The merger also helped lift Numerica’s membership to 85,000.
Bert Caldwell
From wire reports
• USA Today, the nation’s second largest newspaper, is making the most dramatic overhaul of its staff in its 28-year history as it de-emphasizes its print edition and ramps up its effort to reach more readers and advertisers on mobile devices. The makeover will result in about 130 layoffs this fall, for a 9 percent reduction in USA Today’s work force of 1,500 employees.
• Hewlett-Packard Co. boosted its bid for 3Par Inc. to $1.88 billion Friday, topping Dell Inc.’s offer by 11 percent and again raising the stakes in the bidding contest for the data-storage company. The $30-per-share offer from HP came just hours after Dell matched HP’s Thursday bid of $27 per share. The latest price is three times what 3Par was trading at before Dell made its first bid last week, for $18 per share, or $1.13 billion.
• Ford is recalling 575,000 older model Windstar vans in the United States and Canada over concerns that the rear axles can corrode and potentially break. The recall covers vehicles in the model years 1998 to 2003 sold or registered in states where the heavy use of road salt can cause more corrosion. That includes Canada, New England, the Mid-Atlantic states and the Great Lakes region.