Accord creeps up on top-selling Camry
DETROIT – America’s top-selling car is in danger of losing its title.
Toyota’s Camry has been No. 1 for more than a decade, but the company is being forced to cut prices to keep it there.
Camry sales fell 2 percent from January through June. Meanwhile, its main rivals in the midsize car market – the Honda Accord, Nissan Altima and Ford Fusion – posted big gains.
The hot-selling Accord cut the Camry’s lead to just below 21,000 at the end of June. At the same time last year the gap was 59,000.
Toyota is lowering prices to boost Camry sales.
In early July, the Camry’s average sales price was the lowest of the nine top-selling midsize cars, according to data from J.D. Power and Associates obtained by the Associated Press.
Peltz seeks PepsiCo, Oreo-maker merger
NEW YORK – Activist investor Nelson Peltz says he wants PepsiCo to buy Oreo cookie maker Mondelez and spin off its own underperforming beverage unit.
During an interview on CNBC, Peltz said he talked about the proposal with PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi. He said he has a meeting planned with Mondelez’s CEO in the next couple of weeks.
PepsiCo Inc. shares rose $1.22, or 1.5 percent, to finish at $85.24.
Speculation that Peltz could push for a combination of the two snack food giants began earlier this year, with his Trian Fund Management disclosing stakes in the two companies.
The New York native is known for building stakes in companies, then forcing change.
Mondelez and PepsiCo, whose financial performances have both been under scrutiny lately, have said they’re happy with their current portfolios. PepsiCo makes Frito-Lay snacks.
Ex-Goldman director paying $13.9 million
WASHINGTON – The former Goldman Sachs board member convicted of insider trading is paying $13.9 million to settle related civil charges of feeding inside information to his friend, a billionaire hedge fund boss.
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the fine Wednesday against Rajat Gupta, who was also permanently barred from serving as an officer or director of any public company. Gupta, a former chief of global consulting firm McKinsey & Co., was one of the biggest catches for the federal government in its five-year crackdown on insider trading that has brought about 70 criminal convictions.
Gupta was sentenced in October to two years in prison for passing confidential information gained from his position as a Goldman director to Raj Rajaratnam, founder of the Galleon group of 14 hedge funds.