At least 24 trapped in mine landslide in Nicaragua

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — Rescuers worked Friday to reach at least 24 miners trapped in a gold mine landslide in northern Nicaragua.

They could hear voices and presumed that all those trapped are alive, Marta Lagos, an official of the ruling Sandinista Party, told Channel 4 TV. She said rescuers were working to establish contact through an old mine shaft and searching for old tunnels to reach the miners.

The slide occurred Thursday at the El Comal gold and silver mine operated by Hemco in the town of Bonanza, about 260 miles (420 kilometers) northeast of Managua.

A government website, El 19 Digital, reported that one of the 26 originally trapped miners escaped Thursday night and another was rescued Friday morning,

Authorities didn't receive word until late Thursday after the mine lost contact with the workers, who are believed to be about 165 feet (50 meters) below the surface.

Hemco spokesman Gregorio Downs told the government's news website that 26 miners were trapped, and the company initially had contact with them. But he said apparently there were more slides inside after the initial one.

According to the website of Nicaragua-based Hemco, the company has mined in the north Atlantic municipality since 1995 and employs 532 workers, who process 700 tons of material a day. The company, majority owned by Colombia's Mineros S.A., says it produces more than 2,500 pounds (1,150 kilograms, 37,000 troy ounces) of gold a year and is Nicaragua's 12th largest exporter.

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President Obama nominates Danny Marti as new 'piracy czar'

Danny Marti, a copyright and trademark attorney in Washignton, has been nominated as the new White House intellectual property enforcement coordinator, a position dubbed "piracy czar" because of its mission to tackle infringement.

It has been more than a year since Victoria Espinel stepped down from the post, a vacancy that has frustrated industry lobbyists as Espinel had played a role in bringing divergent parties to the table to hash out voluntary agreements on fighting piracy.

The position was established as part of anti-piracy legislation passed in 2008. A requirement is that the IP coordinator be part of the White House staff. The position is part of the Office of Management and Budget.

Marti is managing partner of Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton's Washington, D.C. office. According tothe firm's website, Marti has represented brands such as Tory Burch, Adidas and American Eagle Outfitters in trademark litigation.

His nomination faces Senate confirmation.

According to a profile in Washington Business Journal, Marti was born in Washington, went to Georgetown as an undergraduate and got a law degree at Emory University Law School. He has been a legal adviser to the Gorilla Foundation, and served on the Miami-Dade Community Relations Board before he moved back to D.C. in 2001. He has represented all sides in trademark cases, and Silicon Valley firms on their brand protection, according to industry sources.

Mitch Glazier, senior executive vice president of the Recording Industry Assn. of America, said that the position was "an increasingly important job on behalf of the millions of workers who comprise the country's $1 trillion copyright economy." He added, "We thank the Administration for moving to fill this significant post and we hope for speedy confirmation. We look forward to working with Mr. Marti to help foster the genius of America's creative community."

MPAA CEO Chris Dodd said, "Danny's impressive record of commitment to enforcing IP rights in the Internet age makes him a particularly strong choice. We urge the Senate to confirm him without delay for this important job."

(C) 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Chinese e-commerce rivals challenge Alibaba

BEIJING — China's biggest property developer, Wanda Group, and Internet giants Baidu and Tencent unveiled a new e-commerce venture Friday in a challenge to industry leader Alibaba Group ahead of its U.S. stock offering.

The three companies said they will integrate online and offline selling, with e-commerce services in Wanda's 107 shopping malls, as well as its hotels and resorts. They said they would invest 5 billion yuan ($814 million) to start.

The venture adds to competition for Alibaba, whose Taobao, Tmall and other platforms account for some 80 percent of Chinese online commerce. The company is preparing for a U.S. initial public offering that analysts say might value it between $150 billion and $200 billion.

The new venture will develop services including online finance, the owners said. That could pose a challenge to Alibaba's popular banking service, Yu'ebao.

China is the world's most populous Internet market, with more than 600 million people online. The consulting firm McKinsey has said online shopping might triple from 2011 levels to $400 billion a year by 2015.

Wanda will own 70 percent of the new venture, the Wanda E-Commerce Co.

Baidu Inc., operator of China's most popular search engine, and Tencent Holdings Ltd., which operates games and the popular WeChat instant message service, each will hold 15 percent.

The development of such online-to-offline, or O2O, models is "an inevitable trend" in e-commerce, said the CEO of Wanda E-Commerce, Dong Ce, in a statement. He said the joint resources of the three owners should make the company the biggest of its kind.

Tencent also owns a stake in JD.com, China's second-largest e-commerce company. Tencent has launched ventures to integrate e-commerce and online finance services with WeChat, which it says has more than 400 million active users.

Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent are increasingly intruding into each other's core businesses. They have spent more than $7 billion since the start of 2013 to acquire or launch e-commerce, entertainment and other ventures.

The companies are trying to become one-stop services for Web surfers who increasingly go online using smartphones and want more convenience, industry analysts say.

Wanda said it estimates its shopping malls and other outlets will attract 5 billion customers a year by 2020, making the company the "world's largest offline commerce platform."

Dong said the company expects to sign up 40 million e-commerce users this year and increase the total to 100 million by next year.

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Glimpse behind scenes of Demoulas standoff

A fearless Arthur T. Demoulas called the Market Basket board's bluff by refusing to end an employee uprising, or pay a security deposit during grueling negotiations, until he and his sisters won total control of the 71-store grocery chain, sources told the Herald.

Demoulas cut a deal worth north of $1.5 billion with the board that ousted him — helmed by his bitter rival and cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas — late Wednesday night after a brutal series of negotiations that started July 23 and included a closed-door session with Gov. Deval Patrick.

Two weeks of those high-stakes negotiations, sources said, were consumed by the Market Basket board pitching a range of scenarios in which Arthur T. would encourage protesting employees to return to work and he would return on an interim basis to stabilize the company.

He refused, skeptical the entreaties were designed to make the company more attractive to other potential bidders. The board also wanted Arthur T. to put a substantial security deposit on the table in exchange for it agreeing not to talk with other suitors, sources said.

The mistrust and ill will had dissipated by yesterday morning, as Arthur T. triumphantly toured stores and thanked those who believed in him. He told the Herald with a smile he harbors no ill will toward his cousin or any other family member.

"No, listen, hopefully it will work out for everybody," he said. "Our interest here is just making sure that all the people here are back on track with their normal livelihoods and putting smiles on people's faces. Everything's fine."

Related

During the negotiations, employees refused to return to work despite threats by new management that they'd be fired. All the while, sources said, Market Basket employees loyal to Arthur T. were in touch with skittish vendors — who last week began publicly fretting about being owed money or being overpaid — assuring them their beloved boss would soon be back in control.

Yesterday, those employees jumped headlong into a reboot of a supply and accounting system crippled by six weeks of walkouts and boycotts.

"You are simply the best," Arthur T. told workers from the back of a truck outside company headquarters in Tewksbury. "You taught everybody that Market Basket is a place where respect, honor and dignity is a way of life. You displayed your unwavering dedication and desire to protect the culture of your company."

Hundreds of returning employees fired up delivery trucks, restocked warehouses and reconnected with vendors, promising most customers will see fully stocked stores by the middle of next week.

"Seven hundred guys closed down the warehouse, but 2 million customers shut down (the company)," said Dave Laferrier, assistant manager of Market Basket's nonperishable warehouse and a 34-year employee, who returned to work at the stroke of midnight yesterday. "Everyone's right back in the game. It's like riding a bike. Just needed a little oil on the chain."
The buyout, which Arthur T. leveraged with private equity and other debt, will take months to formally close, with Patrick saying, "there's a lot to do between now and the closing date."

"I'm overwhelmed. This company here is going to be stronger than ever," Arthur T. said yesterday. "I would never bet against this organization."

Laurel J. Sweet contributed to this report.

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The Ticker

Registry to hold plate
lottery in new branch

MassDOT Registrar of Motor Vehicles Celia J. Blue announced the annual low number license plate lottery drawing will be held on Sept. 10 from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the RMV's soon-to-open branch at 136 Blackstone St. in Boston. The number "351" is included in the drawing this year; it is the number of cities and towns within the commonwealth.

The new branch space features a dedicated E-ZPass Service Customer Center, enhanced privacy during customer transactions and hearings, and consolidated licensing and registration counters.

The Boston Public Market is to be located on the first floor and the RMV will occupy the second and third floors.

Abercrombie's logos coming off

The Abercrombie & Fitch logo has lost the power it once wielded.

Shares of Abercrombie & Fitch Co. tumbled yesterday after reporting weak sales as more teens shop elsewhere. The New Albany, Ohio-based retailer reported that revenue fell 5.8 percent to $890.6 million, short of analyst estimates. Revenue at stores open at least a year dropped a steep 11 percent, including 
8 percent at U.S. stores.

The company is trying to stock trendier clothing — and it turns out that means stripping off the once-prized Abercrombie logo.

It is a major change for the retailer, whose sweatshirts and T-shirts emblazoned with its name long held major cachet with teenagers. Now, individuality is the name of the game.

U.S. economy grew at 4.2 percent rate

After a bleak start to the year, the U.S. economy grew at a brisk annual rate of 4.2 percent in the April-June quarter, the government said yesterday, slightly faster than it had first estimated.

The upward revision supported expectations that the second half of 2014 will prove far stronger than the first half.

Today

L Commerce Department releases personal income and spending for July.

L Biogen Idec announced that Donald R. Johns, M.D., has joined the company as vice president, leading Biogen Idec's amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) Innovation Hub (ALS iHub). The ALS iHub is a new, cohesive unit dedicated to accelerating the discovery and development of novel therapies for ALS by integrating research with clinical development. Johns has spent more than 30 years researching and developing medicines for patients with neurodegenerative diseases. He has contributed to several successful new drug applications and has 14 patents in his name that are either issued or pending.

Do you have a new hire or promotion to announce? Send items with photos for The Shuffle to bizsmart@bostonherald.com.

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Victorian in Brookline a labor of love

Imagine spending almost three years turning a historic Victorian into a showpiece and then having to sell your dream house.

That's what happened to the owners of 11 Chestnut Place in Brookline, an 1855-built Italianate Victorian that they transformed before they were recently transferred back to Europe.

"The owners did not want to in any way leave," said broker Bill Gehan of Campion & Co., who is assisting Tracy Campion with the listing of this five-bedroom, 7,980-square-foot property that's on the market for $4.95 million. "This was where they had resettled and they were planning to raise their three children here."

When they bought the place in 2010, the owners called in Hub architecture firm Butz + Klug.

"The house was in such bad shape that it was literally falling down," said architect Jeffrey Klug. "What we did was to totally gut the interior, build an entirely new house a quarter inch inside the exterior walls, and then connected the two."

Because the home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the exterior look had to be maintained. But because of the poor condition — part of the foundation even fell off — the architects were forced to re-create all the original Italianate details with new cedar siding, window moldings and roof cornice brackets.

"This is a brand-new home," Klug said.

Well, not entirely. Previous owners added a 54-foot heated pool and sauna in a vaulted pavilion reachable via a connecting hallway off the kitchen. And the three-car detached garage was the home's original carriage house — with an au-pair suite added above.

When it came time to do the interior, Krug and his partner Pamela Butz found a sympathetic client who liked the kind of modern design they do — subtle, with lots of neutral colors using high-quality woods, fixtures and materials.

The kitchen features untreated white oak plank floors, a concrete, stainless steel and oak island, and gray, frosted-glass cabinets — along with splashes of color such as orange cabinetry on the island. There's a custom-made Gaggenau freestanding gas stove and a ribbed stainless-steel enclosure that hides a Miele refrigerator and double Gaggenau wall ovens.

The architects added four French windows that open out into a Belgian bluestone terrace that has pullout screens on the columns.

The living room has hand-carved crown molding, chevron-set white oak floors and a carved fireplace mantel from a 19th century French home.

The master bedroom has a big walk-in dressing room with an 18-foot Porro wardrobe system and the master bathroom has teak flooring and woodwork, white Corian double vanities and a gray marble-lined shower.

No expense was spared, as the home was redone without thoughts of a sale anytime soon.

"This was a labor of love, with lots of time, energy and money," Gehan said. "The owners just want us to find a buyer who loves the home as much as they do."

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Image experts: Uphill battle for Arthur S. Demoulas

Arthur S. Demoulas, who was cast as the villain in the Market Basket saga, made a number of missteps but faced an uphill battle to turn around public opinion in his favor, communication 
experts say.

"I think Arthur S. was demonized unfairly because he never put a face to this or communicated what his goal was," said Richard Nicolazzo, founder of Nicolazzo & Associates public relations firm. "I think that was probably the weakness in his strategy from a communication perspective. He created a lot of bad will unnecessarily because he wasn't proactive."

And Demoulas didn't help his image when a Channel 7 television reporter unsuccessfully tried to talk to him outside a board meeting last month, Nicolazzo said.

"He was uncomfortable in his skin and didn't seem to care," Nicolazzo said. "He didn't have to account to anyone because he was in control of the company. He came across as not being a man of the people."

Demoulas broke classic crisis management rules, said Daniel Korschun, a Drexel University professor and fellow at the Center for Corporate Reputation Management.

"The classic ways to manage reputation in a crisis is to respond quickly, accept responsibility for anything that's gone wrong and to be transparent about what steps you're going to take to remedy it," Korschun said. "They didn't act quickly at all. They never recognized the concerns of employees and customers and they certainly were not forthcoming on how they were going to fix the crisis."

Improving the public image of Demoulas would have proved nearly impossible in the face of such genuine and authentic support from fans of beloved rival cousin Arthur T. Demoulas, said Helene Solomon of crisis communications firm Solomon McCown & Co.

"Arthur T. let the employees, managers and customers tell his story. Arthur S. didn't have a comparable proxy," Solomon said.

"The undeniable evidence of nonunionized workers and customers going to bat for Arthur T. seemed to dwarf anything the other side would say. Maybe (the Arthur S. side) made a calculation they weren't open to that public debate," she said.

Efforts to reach Arthur S. Dem-oulas, O'Neill and Associates 
and Kekst and Co., which represented Market Basket's embattled co-CEOs and board, respectively, were unsuccessful yesterday.

Solomon said the deal to sell ultimately may have boosted 
Arthur S. Demoulas' image.

"At the end of the day, Arthur S. has to get a little bit of credit 
because they came to terms," 
Solomon said.

"And a deal of this magnitude under the public microscope, that's pretty significant," she said.

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Massachusetts to offer two-month tax amnesty

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Department of Revenue has announced a two-month amnesty program designed to encourage the payment of delinquent taxes by individuals and businesses.

The amnesty program will run from Sept. 1 through Oct. 31. It applies to unpaid taxes billed on or before July 1.

About 300,000 taxpayers will receive a notice next month notifying them that they qualify for the tax amnesty program.

The notices will tell taxpayers how much they owe. Revenue officials will waive all penalties if the balance is paid in full by the end of October.

The tax amnesty program was approved by state lawmakers and included in the fiscal year 2015 budget signed by Gov. Deval Patrick in July.

Officials say the program is a good way to encourage delinquent taxpayers to pay up and avoid fines.

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After Twitch, is Ustream the next billion-dollar target?

The $970 million in cash Amazon is paying to purchase Twitch isn't just good news for the founders of the company that live-streams people playing videogames. Another player that's quietly operated in the wings, Ustream, could now also benefit and find itself the next billion-dollar takeover target.

Ustream certainly has roots entrenched in Hollywood that makes it attractive to the industry's largest entertainment conglomerates.

The San Francisco-based company has live-streamed red-carpet premieres and other events for "The Hunger Games," "Twilight," "Neighbors," "Game of Thrones" and "Pretty Little Liars" for Lionsgate, Universal, HBO and ABC Family. Other clients include TMZ, Showtime, Discovery, and the UFC, which has tested pay-per-view events.

Ustream's technology also is embedded inside Sony's PlayStation 4, enabling gamers to upload what they're playing at the press of a button.

Ustream admits it's recently had prospective buyers kick the tires of the privately owned company.

"We have seen a definite uptick in M&A inquiries in the past few months -- likely driven by the Twitch conversation, rising awareness surrounding streaming video, and our surging enterprise video business, which now accounts for approximately one-third of all live business video," Ustream CEO Brad Hunstable told Variety. "We are going to wait before taking any offers. Live video was previously expected to triple in the next three years, and now we think that might be a conservative estimate."

And that doesn't come as much of a surprise to analysts.

"Over time, Ustream will be a highly desirable acquisition candidate, but the marketplace has to develop a full appreciation for what a volume distributor of live streaming video content can do," said Steve Vonder Haar, a senior analyst of enterprise webcasting and streaming at Wainhouse Research told Variety.

He also notes that "live video delivered in a streaming environment is not a technically easy thing to do at scale. Ustream is focusing on creating a hosted solution that does just that."

But what could make Ustream even more appealing to potential buyers is the fact it's focused on more than just Hollywood. The company was responsible for streaming a third of all live business video last year and is used by Facebook, LinkedIn, Intuit, NASA and Salesforce.

Those kinds of clients, however, should raise questions whether Ustream is right for Warner Bros., Disney, Sony, DreamWorks Animation, even Legendary Entertainment and Relativity Media, which are increasing their investments in digital ventures.

What those companies are buying, however, are ventures like Maker Studios, AwesomenessTV, Nerdist and Geek & Sundry -- companies with connections to talent making content watched by a young audience.

Ustream is more of a distributor, whose technology could attract the deep pockets of Google.

Amazon's acquisition of Twitch signaled that there's a lot of value in the live streaming of entertainment programming online -- not a surprise given that live broadcasts are also significant ratings generators on broadcast television.

Yet while Twitch spent all of its resources turning itself into a popular brand with gamers, Ustream has focused on finding a far larger audience -- usually more than 80 million viewers in a month, far more than the 50 million gamers that logged onto Twitch in July -- namely clients looking to get the word out about a product or service whether it's to their consumers at trade shows or employees through internal presentations.

But as it does mature, that will only increase the value of the companies that appear to be at the forefront.

In addition to Ustream, there's Newtek Tricaster, Livestream, Monetize Media, Bit TV, Streamup, BlogTV and Kyte.

There also is Major League Gaming, which like Twitch, live streams videogame competitions and events.

Ustream has raised around $60 million to date from investors that include SoftBank and DCM, its primary investors.

Why Ustream hasn't yet been acquired also doesn't surprise observers.

"It's early days in the streaming technology sector," said Vonder Haar, noting how YouTube is only a decade old. "This is really going to fundamentally change traditional media and video enriched business communications. Change that important takes a long time to evolve."

(C) 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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NYC developer makes changes in 'poor door' design

NEW YORK — A developer and city officials say some changes have been negotiated in a plan for a so-called "poor door" for less-affluent residents of a Manhattan skyscraper.

People who live in the pricey condos will still enter through the front lobby.

But The Wall Street Journal (http://on.wsj.com/1vt6fxt ) says residents of the affordable portion will now get shared access to a courtyard and a roof deck facing the Hudson River.

Executives from developer Larry Silverstein's company and its partner say they'll position that entrance to face a planned public park.

It also will feature custom wood and a lobby with a glass facade.

City officials call the project a model for integrating affordable and market-rate apartments. But they're also hoping for changes in the law to forbid separate entrances.

___

Information from: The Wall Street Journal, http://www.wsj.com

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