Company News: Starbucks, Ethiopia reach truce over licensing

Starbucks Corp. and the Ethiopian government said Wednesday they will work together to promote three of the African nation’s prized specialty coffees under a deal that supports the country’s bid to win trademarks it believes will benefit farmers.

The world’s largest coffeehouse chain and Ethiopia’s intellectual property office said their licensing, distribution and marketing agreement acknowledges the country’s ownership of three coffee names — Yirgacheffe, Harar and Sidamo — regardless of whether they are trademarked.

The deal will not reap Ethiopia any royalty payments, officials said.

Last year, Starbucks refused Ethiopia’s request that the company sign a voluntary licensing agreement saying the country owns rights to those coffee names even in countries where they are not trademarked.

Instead, Starbucks said it wanted to help Ethiopia establish geographic certification for the coffee bean names, similar to the designations assigned to Washington apples or Hawaii’s Kona coffee.

Starbucks did not acknowledge to reversing course with the deal announced Wednesday.

“The investment arm of billionaire Kirk Kerkorian said Wednesday it was ending negotiations on the possible purchase of casino giant MGM Mirage Inc.’s Bellagio hotel-casino and its CityCenter project.

The announcement followed one by MGM Mirage that it was entering into a joint venture with Kerzner International Holdings Inc. to develop 40 acres of land into a multibillion-dollar casino resort on the northern end of the Las Vegas Strip.

MGM said in its second release that Tracinda, which owns 56 percent of MGM shares, had informed a meeting of MGM’s board Tuesday that it would abandon its effort to restructure the casino operator.

“Airbus racked up more orders for its A350 XWB aircraft on Wednesday, striking back a day after U.S. rival Boeing Co. snagged the troubled jet’s original launch customer for its own 787 Dreamliner.

In announcements timed to make a splash at the weeklong Paris Air Show, Airbus landed orders for a total of 166 aircraft Wednesday, bringing its haul for the first three days of the event to 548 — worth a total of $75.7 billion on the basis of catalog prices.

Of the three-day tally, 358 aircraft were firm orders and 190 were commitments that are likely to be converted into firm orders in the coming months.