ESPN begins hundreds of layoffs.

H&M says that some clothes were produced in collapsed factory in Cambodia.

Target misses earnings expectations and cuts outlook.

Cable networks are rebranding, and pay-TV brands aren't happy about it. 

Dairy Queen to debut new ad campaign that promotes its burgers and fries.

Dodge enjoys star turn for its Challenger at premiere of Fast and Furious 6.

EA lawsuit over players' videogame-likeness issue threatens NCAA policies.

Facebook becoming less popular among teens, Pew study finds. 

Ferrero backs off attack on World Nutella Day.

Fisker Automotive reportedly sees bid by boutique firm led by former GM exec Bob Lutz and Chinese supplier.Continue reading...

General Motors keeps expanding its investment intentions in China, the world's largest auto market, announcing today that Chinese authorities gave the company permission to build a $1.3 billion plant to make Cadillacs, which so far have held a paltry share of the Chinese luxury-auto market as the brand struggles to latch on to local culture.

But in going bigger and bolder in China than, arguably, any other automaker, is GM forsaking the American taxpayer and the US market that is its home? As GM continues to announce new ambitions for China, a mini-media tempest has broken out around the issue.

There's no doubting GM's intentions. Last year, Cadillac sold just 30,000 vehicles in China, but GM said in January that it aims to increase Cadillac sales in the country to 100,000 a year by 2016 and to cop 10 percent of the Chinese luxury market by 2020. One prong of its strategy will be to target affluent buyers in smaller cities that heretofore have been relatively unimportant outposts for premium-car brands. The competition—chiefly the German luxury brands—keep getting hit regularly with GM news like this.Continue reading...

"Lightning rod" no longer suffices to suffice to describe the platform for controversy that the Chevrolet Volt has become in its two-year history on the market. Maybe someday Volt will simply serve as its own metaphor for a brilliant but troubled car — like "DeLorean."

That's not to say that it's not successful — indeed, the Volt has expanded its lead, as Bloomberg reports, "as the top-selling U.S. rechargeable car this year as Toyota expanded plug-in Prius deliveries and Nissan said it's working to boost electric Leaf sales." Chevy sold 2,851 Volts in September; Nissan sold 984 Leafs; it wasn't clear how many of Toyota's mearly 19,000 Prius sales were plug-ins, but certainly it was a small percentage.

Even so, Chevrolet CMO Chris Perry is having to defend the recent ramping up of sales incentives that the brand is using to entice consumers and dealers into moving more units of the plug-in hybrid nameplate.Continue reading...

The auto industry continues to move in fits and starts — some huge, some tiny — toward the future of the electrified automobile. It hasn't been pretty getting this far, and there will be many ups and downs for electric vehicles before U.S. and global consumers presumably someday embrace them.

One of the inevitable shifts along that path came today when a Chinese auto-parts company rescued cash-strapped A123 Systems, an American lithium-ion battery maker for the U.S. electrified-car market that has been in lots of financial trouble in part because of how slowly the market has developed. Wanxiang can acquire up to 80 percent of A123 Systems in return for an investment of up to $450 million.

Quickly, a very public critic of the deal emerged: Bob Lutz, former GM vice chairman, in a column on Forbes.com. The father of the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid is opposed to the "green-technology" mandate on the U.S. auto industry by the Obama administration, which had made a $249-million loan to A123 Systems.

Lutz characterized the acquisition of the high-tech company by the Chinese concern as a downfall of trying to "mandate" an EV-car market to an American public that isn't ready for it yet.Continue reading...

Bob Lutz is done complaining about the right-wing media conspiracy that he believes has its knives out for the Chevrolet Volt. Really, he is.

The former GM vice chairman vowed in his latest blog post for Forbes.com that he's finally, once and for all, irreversibly, incontrovertibly, done complaining about how Fox News and other conservative media outlets and journalists have conspired to attempt to sink the Volt plug-in hybrid that Lutz championed into existence when he was at General Motors.Continue reading...

Apple balks at Proview's iPad trademark demands; held cross-licensing talks with Motorola, EU reveals.

AT&T expands 4G LTE rollout.

Audi said to be in talks to buy Ducati.

BabyBjorn gets a boost from Beyonce, while New York Times logo gets boosted by Jay-Z in Amex-sponsored show at SXSW.

Bob Lutz defends the Chevy Volt.

China promotes its homegrown brands.

Coca-Cola lobbyists spend millions to defeat soda taxes, hires Jean-Paul Gaultier as Diet Coke's European creative director.

Facebook sued by Yahoo for allegedly infringing patents, while Timeline apps inspire developers.

Friendly's ice cream chain expands ordering and loyalty online.

Intel reportedly eyes web TV service.

Jeremy Lin may endorse Volvo in China.Continue reading...

Ally Financial delays $6B IPO.

AT&T brings free Wi-Fi to NYC parks.

Avaya files for $1 billion IPO.

Borders lenders force store closures.

Burger King and Pizza Hut executives put hometown pride on the line with bet on NBA Finals.

Citigroup data theft exposes nagging security issues in the financial-services industry.Continue reading...