Creative Economy: Award-winning jazz composer-conductor takes lead in digital piracy battle
When Maria Schneider was in graduate school in the 1980s, she was mildly interested in her required music-business courses, but her focus was the music itself. Little did she suspect that, decades later, along with having risen to the top of her profession as a big-band jazz composer and conductor, with five Grammy awards and high-profile commissions throughout the world, she also would emerge as a leading figure in debates about the...
Making Sense of Traffic Data
San Francisco — On the Internet, traffic is easily tracked. Google and Facebook have algorithms that know what users are searching for. Online retailers can monitor what shoppers are buying. Newspapers can see in real-time how many readers are viewing an article. The same hasn’t been true for traffic in the physical world, where data-gathering has been decidedly more low-tech. Want to know how many people are getting on at a certain...
Vermont Sets the Standard
Montpelier — General Mills’ announcement on Friday that it will start labeling products that contain genetically modified ingredients to comply with a Vermont law shows food companies might be giving up the fight against labels, even as they hold out hope Congress will find a national solution. Tiny Vermont is the first state to require such labeling, effective July 1. Its fellow New England states of Maine and Connecticut have passed...
Huge Bid for Starwood Hotels Puts Chinese Firm in Spotlight
Beijing — A $14 billion bid for Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. surfaced Monday, putting a spotlight on Chinese firm Anbang Insurance Group and complicating a plan to meld Starwood and Marriott International Inc. into the largest hotel company. Starwood told Marriott on Friday that it received an unsolicited offer from a consortium led by Anbang, according to a statement released Monday by Marriott. Starwood confirmed that...
Business Notes: March 13, 2016
Wilder — Steve Davis, owner of VerMod, the Wilder-based manufacturer of energy-efficient modular homes, has purchased the 20,000-square-foot building on Route 5 that his company has leased for two years. Terms of the deal were not announced. VerMod secured financing for the purchase with support from the Green Mountain Economic Development Corp., the Vermont Small Business Development Center, the Vermont Economic Development...
