In brief: Hotel developer dies at age 94 in Missouri
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Prominent hotel developer and Missouri philanthropist John Q. Hammons has died. He was 94.
His company says Hammons passed away Sunday at the Springfield nursing home where he’d lived after stepping away from the company he led well into his 80s.
After his first business went bust in the 1940s, Hammons built subdivisions in southwest Missouri before purchasing 10 Holiday Inn franchises with a partner in 1958.
He went on to build 200 hotels nationwide, avoiding big cities in favor of college towns and state capitals.
EU’s biggest paper will install paywall
BERLIN – Europe’s top-selling newspaper said Monday it will introduce a paywall for part of its online offerings starting next month.
Main news stories will remain free of charge online, but a subscription will be required to view features, interviews and other exclusive content, German tabloid Bild said.
The basic digital subscription will cost $6.50 per month starting June 11, and twice that for a premium version that includes the tabloid as an e-paper. The Axel Springer AG-owned newspaper will also offer readers buying a print copy, at 70 euro cents a day, a pass to its online content. The pass will be unique to each paper, thanks to a new printing technique, which the company calls a “world premiere” for the industry.
Canadian drugmaker buys Bausch & Lomb
Canadian drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals said Monday that it will pay $8.7 billion to buy Bausch & Lomb, one of the world’s best-known makers of contact lenses, in a massive expansion of Valeant’s smaller ophthalmology business.
Valeant said the cash deal will help it capitalize on increasing demand for contact lenses and other products because of aging populations, growing demand in emerging markets and increasing rates of diabetes. Complications of the complex blood sugar disorder can damage the eyes over time.
Investment firm Warburg Pincus, which leads an investment group that owns Bausch & Lomb, will receive $4.5 billion in cash. The remaining $4.2 billion will be used to repay Bausch & Lomb’s debt.