KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Friday October 2 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:

Quirky files for Chapter 11, will sell Wink unit - (www.cnbc.com) Design and invention hub Quirky announced Tuesday it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and plans to sell its Wink smart home unit. Connected device maker Flextronics has submitted a bid to acquire Wink and will likely go through with the acquisition barring additional offers. Wink did not disclose the offer price, but said the deal could be completed in 60 days. "This does not impact the Wink experience for our users nor how Wink operates day-to-day," Wink said in a statement. Quirky—which generated more than $100 million in revenue in 2014—was featured on CNBC's Disruptor 50 list this year. Inventors submit ideas to its website and receive royalties if Quirky makes the products, which are sold in retailers. The restructuring filing follows the departure of founder and CEO Ben Kaufman this summer. At the time, Quriky said it would continue to focus its efforts on Wink.

Groupon Is Laying Off 1100 At A Cost Of $35M, Shutters Operations In 7 Countries - (www.techcrunch.com) Some significant downsizing is underway at Groupon, the daily deals and local-commerce site. The company is today announcing that it will be cutting 1,100 jobs — mostly in its sales (aka “deal factory”) and customer service operations — taking a pre-tax charge of $35 million in the process. As part of the restructure, Groupon is also ceasing operations in several markets internationally: Morocco, Panama, The Philippines, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, Thailand and Uruguay will all be closing. The closures come on top of recent exits in Turkey and Greece and a sell-off of a controlling stake in Groupon India to Sequoia (news we first broke in March of this year). “We believe that in order for our geographic footprint to be an even bigger advantage, we need to focus our energy and dollars on fewer countries,” COO Rich Williams noted in a blog post the company just put up on the news. Before the closures, Groupon was active in over 40 countries.

Glencore Falls to Record as Mining Shares Lead Stock Losses - (www.bloomberg.com) The rout across metals and mining shares accelerated as evidence of China’s slowdown renewed investor worries and analysts said prices are heading lower. Glencore tumbled as much as 16 percent, the most ever, and slid below 100 pence for the first time since it began trading in 2011. Anglo American Plc touched a 15-year low and Antofagasta Plc sank 7.3 percent. KAZ Minerals Plc, a small copper miner in Kazakhstan, lost 25 percent. Mining companies are suffering under the lowest commodity prices in more than a decade and no signs of a turnaround in China’s economy. The largest companies in the industry have scrapped dividends, cut jobs and sold new shares to preserve profitability as the slump in raw-material prices continues.

The Surprisingly Big Market for Sand Just Collapsed - (www.bloomberg.com) In New Auburn, Wisconsin, a desolate, little outpost carved from the rolling pine-tree forests that run into Lake Superior, the collapse in oil is wreaking havoc on every aspect of the economy. It’s not that there’s any oil here. None in fact for hundreds of miles around. What they’ve got is sand. Real good sand, piled high in giant mounds. And in what is a little-known offshoot of the shale oil revolution that swept across America over the past decade, the market for sand -- the grit that props open the rocks and makes fracking possible -- exploded too, transforming almost overnight what had been a sleepy industry that sold primarily to the likes of glass makers and golf courses. So when the shale boom went bust, it took down the sand industry with it. Prices have sunk almost a third to under $40 per ton. For the people of northwestern Wisconsin, the epicenter of the sand rush, the economic toll has been harsh. It all happened so fast that many -- like the Bischel brothers: Tom, age 42, and Jeff, 51 -- were blindsided. Back in the winter, the two had pooled their money together to open a fast-food joint. They named their ice-cream dessert the Sandstorm, a play on Dairy Queen’s Blizzard, and designed an extra-tall drive-through window to accommodate all the sand-hauling truckers rumbling through town.

Mines in America's Coal Country Just Sold for a Total of Nothing - (www.bloomberg.com) For a reality check on America’s coal industry, consider how much a collection of Appalachian pits just sold for: nothing. That’s what Booth Energy Group’s Cambrian Coal Corp. paid up front for a Teco Energy Inc. unit that controls a collection of surface and underground mines, a company statement Monday shows. Teco said it may receive $60 million should coal prices reach “certain levels” over the next five years. (Coking coal is at a decade low. Futures are on track to fall for a record fifth straight year.) Bargain-basement coal deals are proliferating as producers bail out of an industry stuck in its worst downturn in decades. Miners are facing a slowing global economy, escalating competition from cheap natural gas and mounting environmental and mining regulations. In February, West Virginia businessman Jim Justice paid Russia’s OAO Mechel$5 million and assumed some debt to buy back operations that he had sold to the company in 2009 for $568 million.

OTHER STORIES:

Bummer: Stocks badly missing Wall Street’s mark - (www.cnbc.com)

One year after IPO, more pain ahead for BABA? - (www.cnbc.com)

Brazil's Stocks Lead Losses in Americas Amid Recession Outlook - (www.bloomberg.com)