Madoff settlement brightens Mets’ future

NEW YORK – The New York Mets’ owners scored an early-season victory Monday, stabilizing the club’s financial future in a deal with a trustee for Bernard Madoff’s fraud victims that requires them to pay millions less than they might have.

Mets CEO Fred Wilpon and team President Saul Katz, co-majority owners, emerged smiling from a Manhattan federal courthouse after a judge announced the agreement, which makes it likely they’ll pay much less than the agreed-upon $162 million, if any at all; guarantees they will owe nothing until the end of four years; and averts a high-profile civil trial.

Wendy’s sales volume exceeds Burger King’s

NEW YORK – Wendy’s has dethroned Burger King as the country’s second biggest hamburger chain.

Wendy’s edged out Burger King in U.S. sales volume for the first time last year since Wendy’s was founded in 1969, according to a report by the food industry research firm Technomic Inc. Wendy’s had sales of $8.5 billion in 2011, compared with $8.4 billion for Burger King. McDonald’s remained far larger than both with $34.2 billion in sales.

The figures are based on Technomic’s estimates of systemwide sales at franchise and company-owned restaurants, rather than corporate revenue, which includes fees from franchise operators.

Oprah’s TV network lays off 30 staffers

LOS ANGELES – Oprah Winfrey’s struggling television network, OWN, said Monday it is laying off one-fifth of its workers and restructuring its operations in New York and Los Angeles.

The decision to let 30 employees go is a “tough” one, but the economics of a startup cable network didn’t fit with OWN’s cost structure, Winfrey said in a statement.