In brief: Gregory Mount named CEO of Red Lion Hotels

Red Lion Hotels Corp. of Spokane has named Gregory Mount as chief executive officer.

Mount has 25 years of experience in the hospitality business and succeeds interim CEO James P. Evans, who served in that role following Jon Eliassen’s retirement last summer. Evans will remain a member of the board.

“Greg has a proven track record of successfully increasing the brand value, visibility and geographic footprint of a number of hotel chains, and we are confident that he is the right leader to grow Red Lion,” said Mel Keating, chairman of the Red Lion board.

The company has 53 Red Lion hotels across the western United States and British Columbia. It also has two hotels in its Leo Hotel brand. Its focus in recent years has been on expanding the number of franchises that carry the Red Lion brand and modernizing core facilities.

Mount has been president of Richfield Hospitality and its subsidiaries, Sceptre Hospitality and Richfield Hospitality China. Those companies provide customer management and revenue management for more than 3,000 hotels worldwide.

Mount had held senior roles at Sage Hospitality, as well as Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.

Google to buy Nest Labs for $3.2 billion

NEW YORK – Google will pay $3.2 billion to buy Nest Labs, which develops high-tech versions of devices like thermostats and smoke detectors, in its second-largest acquisition ever.

The search engine operator was an early investor in Nest Labs. It says the company’s Nest Learning Thermostat has been a “consistent best-seller.” The thermostat, which retails for $249, is designed to learn how inhabitants like their homes to be heated and cooled. Once it learns the consumers’ preferences, it automatically adjusts the temperature.

Analyst Shyam Patil of Wedbush Securities said Google is positioning itself to offer products that work on the “Internet of Things” – specifically a “connected home” full of intelligent wireless devices that collect data and could be controlled with a smartphone.

NEW YORK – Cable TV operator Charter Communications intensified its pursuit of the much-larger Time Warner Cable and vowed Monday to bring an offer directly to shareholders if needed after getting rebuffed by Time Warner’s management.

Although there is no formal proposal on the table, Charter said it is willing to make a cash-and-stock offer that could be worth up to $38 billion.