Business news in brief
In the Region
Brazil whacks FMC
FMC Corp.'s third-quarter sales increased by 1 percent to $831 million but the company lost $2.4 million, or 2 cents a share. The Philadelphia specialty chemical company has been hurt by the rapid devaluation of the Brazilian real against the dollar. FMC says it expects to cut 800 to 850 jobs, accelerating a plan to trim costs over the next six months. - Bob Fernandez
Scrub Daddy launches belt
Aaron Krause, the Voorhees creator of Scrub Daddy, the smiling cleaning pad that became the most successful product on ABC's Shark Tank, has teamed with British inventor Piers Ridyard to create a belt that can charge mobile phones. A Kickstarter campaign to support development of the Ion Tech Belt and to gauge its market appeal will be launched Friday. Krause and Ridyard, creator of Nifty MiniDrive, a data-storage add-on for MacBook, have formed Ion Tech Wear for the belt project and possibly other wearable technology. - Diane Mastrull
Drug wholesaler swings to loss
AmerisourceBergen, Pennslyvania's largest company by revenue, said its full-year sales increased from $119.57 billion in 2014 to $135.96 billion in its fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. AmerisourceBergen, whose top executives work in Conshohocken and Chesterbrook, said it had a full-year loss of $134.89 million after posting a profit of $284.03 million in 2014. The loss was partly attributable to higher expenses associated with warrants issued to Walgreens Boots Alliance. Walgreens merged with British-based Boots Alliance and in 2013 entered into a deal with AmerisourceBergen to supply medicine, which boosted AmerisourceBergen's sales. - David Sell
Vanguard alleges fraud
Vanguard Group index funds and real estate funds on Monday sued Nicholas S. Schorsch in federal court in Arizona, alleging "a multi-year fraud and attempted cover-up" when he was chief executive at American Realty Capital Partners, now Vereit. Schorsch was based in Montgomery County before moving to New York. The suit also targets the Arizona-based Vereit, four former Schorsch lieutenants, and five other Schorsch-backed companies. Vanguard claims in the 150-page complaint a fraud "orchestrated by the top executives" at American Realty Capital Partners, which controlled properties worth $21 billion in 2014 after a string of acquisitions. The fraud ended in 2014 when the company admitted it had misreported earnings. The stock lost more than half its value, damaging Vanguard and other investors. Vereit spokesman Parke M. Chapman said the company doesn't comment on "legal matters." Messages left for Schorsch were not immediately returned. - Joseph N. DiStefano
Elsewhere
German bank to shrink
Deutsche Bank AG said it will shrink its workforce by about 26,000 people by 2018, close operations in 10 countries, including Mexico, Norway and New Zealand, and move trading operations from Brazil to global and regional hubs. Bank co-CEO John Cryan is under pressure to lower costs, boost capital buffers, and reverse a share slump that has made Deutsche Bank the worst-valued stock among global lenders. - Bloomberg News
Luxury market softens
The global market for personal luxury goods is heading for its weakest year since 2009 as a combination of stock market turmoil, a strong dollar, and a commodity-price rout curb demand. Sales of items such as designer dresses and shoes will rise as little as 1 percent in 2015, according to Bain & Co., which in May forecast growth of 2 percent to 4 percent. - Bloomberg News
PayPal emerges from EBay
PayPal Holdings Inc., in its first quarter as a stand-alone company separate from EBay Inc., said it added four million accounts to reach 173 million users. Its total payments volume gained 20 percent to $69.7 billion from a year earlier. The goal of the split with EBay was to make sure that each company could focus on its main businesses. EBay last week reported quarterly profit and sales that topped analysts' estimates. - Bloomberg News
Holiday online sales: $83B
Online sales are expected to reach $83 billion this holiday season, an 11 percent increase from 2014, according to results of the 2015 Digital Index Online Shopping Predictions report by Adobe released on Thursday. Cyber Monday - the Monday after Thanksgiving - is expected to hit $3 billion for first time, a 12 percent increase year-over-year. Thanksgiving Day will grow fastest, with 18 percent year-over-year growth to $1.6 billion, while Black Friday will come in at $2.7 billion. - Suzette Parmley
Cereal-maker still paring plants
General Mills will close two more plants, in the United Kingdom and New Zealand. The company, based in suburban Minneapolis, has laid off more than 2,500 workers globally in the last year as it copes with stagnant packaged food sales. In June, it announced it would eliminate up to 725 white-collar jobs that are chiefly in its international division. And it has announced the closure of six U.S. factories.
- Minneapolis Star Tribune