With its most famous resident putting a "For Sale" sign in her front yard, the city of Malibu, California, is looking for new ways to attract tourists and boost income. 

CNBC reports that Malibu has signed a deal with Excel Corp. in order to start “licensing apparel, active wear, and even things like sunglasses, watches, and volleyballs” with the extra money going to “fund special projects.”

The city is forking over $90,000 for Excel to design a logo and find licensees.Continue reading...

The timing would be great for Chevrolet to be pushing a hot new car. GM sales were up in August, renewing hope for a continuation of the company's recent momentum. And the Chevy Volt continues to get shellacked for high development and manufaturing costs, low sales, and desperate incentives to sell the units that do move — a critique the automaker refutes.

But according to the automotive cognescenti, the Chevy Malibu Eco just isn't up to the challenge of delivering another winning product for GM in a sequence to follow the Chevy Cruze and Sonic models, which are smaller. (Chevy is also launching a new, tiny Spark nameplate this fall.) Eco's raison d'etre appears to be a "mild hybrid" drivetrain that includes an electric motor to give mileage a boost — but which, unfortunately, doesn't deliver much by way of fuel efficiency, compared with competitors, and is accompanied by a smaller wheelbase and cramped rear seats.Continue reading...

Warner Bros. issues statement as The Dark Knight Rises opens somberly as Denver gunman kills 14 at screening, while movie opens strongly at box office.

Heineken offers $4.1 billion to buy out JV partner for Asia Pacific Breweries stake as Kirin's next move pondered.

Chick-fil-A homophobia shamed by actor Ed Helms.

Apple's original iPad prototype revealed as new iPad launch in China today fails to cause a fuss.

BlackBerry woes broken down to five mistakes by nymag.com.

Comcast prepares ultra high-speed broadband.Continue reading...

Pernod Ricard’s recent "Responsib'All Day" action mobilized employees on five continents in its second annual day of service dedicated to education about responsible drinking. Its "mentor and messenger" efforts reached 18,000 employees worldwide in major cities including Sydney, Shanghai, New Delhi, Tokyo, Johannesburg and São Paulo, and UK-based staff from subsidiaries the Absolut Company and Premium Wine Brands.

"We have been promoting responsible drinking for more than 30 years. At Responsib'All Day, all of our employees are mobilised to help make things change. As a company, we are resolutely dedicated to strengthening our engagement with public authorities and NGOs to fight inappropriate drinking habits," stated Pernod Ricard CEO Pierre Pringuet in a press release.

Pernod Ricard USA’s Facebook platform, dubbed Here’s To Tomorrow, “will attempt to spark a social movement through a platform that encourages parents to take an immediate positive approach in discussing drinking with their underage children today in order to effect a better tomorrow.” With only 115 likes on its campaign Facebook page since launching a week ago, however, it's clearly not as easy to spark a social movement as the French alcohol brand purveyor may think.Continue reading...

The New York International Auto Show has always been a crucial commercial platform for car dealers and buyers in the New York Tri-State area. But more and more, it is joining the big global auto exhibitions — Detroit, Geneva, Frankfurt, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Shanghai and Chicago — as a place for car brands to make news of worldwide import to the industry as well as to butter up the local market.

That makes sense, given that New York is the global media and financial capital.

With the recent pickup in U.S. auto sales awaiting confirmation with March sales results being reported Tuesday, and more optimism ever in the air with the spring selling season, here are some of what auto brands are serving up at NYIAS:Continue reading...

Here's one way of framing the importance of the new 2012 Toyota Camry for the company: Is the new version more like the 2008 Chevrolet Malibu, or more like the 2012 Honda Civic? If it's the former, the overhaul of America's best-selling car could go a long way toward restoring Toyota's luster in a U.S. market that it once threatened to dominate. But if the new Camry is more like the fresh version of the Civic that arch-rival Honda just introduced, Toyota may find that the launch ultimately deepens its woes rather than relieves them.

Camry was unveiled last Tuesday at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, on a New York City-themed backlot with actors, dancers and musicians swirling around it. The Hollywood setting was reminiscent of the big hullaballoo that Ford created in 1986 when it also introduced the then-new Ford Taurus in Hollywood. That vehicle -- with its famous slippery styling that reduces drag and became known as the "jelly-bean" look -- became the best-selling car in America, nearly single-handedly gave Ford a strong ride into the Nineties, and revolutionized automotive styling for the next decade.

Toyota's new Camry could be nearly that important to Toyota. The company, of course, has been battered by the safety recalls of 2010 and by the earthquake of 2011, and its position in the U.S. and other global markets is more tenous than in decades. But an under-appreciated aspect of Toyota's recent woes has been the rather unspectacular nature and infrequency of its new-product launches. So as the highest-volume nameplate in its lineup, and as America's best-selling car for 13 of the last 14 years, the importance of this new Camry to Toyota is profound.Continue reading...

In addition to the unveiling of the 2012 Beetle by Volkswagen, the new Chevy Malibu is also making headlines at the Shanghai Auto Show.

When the current version of the Chevrolet Malibu mid-size sedan was introduced in 2008, after its redesign was personally overseen by then-General Motors Vice Chairman Robert Lutz, its debut was crucial for the company. The new Malibu was meant to show the world that GM really could field a strong entry again in the sedan sweepstakes that was drifting toward imports. That mission was accomplished.

This time around, with another version of Malibu heading to the showroom, GM has a different goal: to demonstrate that it is a force to be reckoned with in the Chinese auto market, and vice versa.Continue reading...

American consumers appear to be warming up to Chevrolet Volt, which is mostly an electric car without being all-electric.

So now, using similar logic, General Motors has created a new brand of almost-hybrid technology called eAssist that helps the internal-combustion engine rather than taking over for it at times, as regular hybrids do. Buick already appropriated eAssist for its 2012 LaCrosse, and GM just announced that its “light-electrification” system would be available on the 2012 Buick Regal as well. The new car is on display at the Chicago Auto Show this week.Continue reading...