Whirlpool to sell Hoover vacuum cleaner biz
Chicago: Wirlpool Corp, the world's No. 1 appliance maker, has signed a deal to sell the Hoover vacuum cleaner business to Techtronic Industries Co. Ltd. for $107 million in cash.

Whirlpool acquired Hoover when it purchased Maytag earlier this year and had considered selling it for months.

Hoover has been struggling in recent years in the face of heated competition and a lack of innovation.

Whirlpool will retain the liabilities associated with pension and post-retirement benefit plans for currently retired Hoover employees.

Whirlpool said it is working to sel the Jade commercial appliance business by the end of this year. Whirlpool, based in Benton Harbor, Michigan, bought Maytag for about $1.7 billion in cash and stock in late March, and assumed about $900 million in debt.
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Muhtar Kent is COO Coca-Cola Corp
New York: Coca-Cola Co. has promoted its president of international operations, Muhtar Kent, to the position of chief operating officer effective immediately. With this Kent becomes a leading candidate to succeed Chief Executive Neville Isdell.

Kent, who first joined Coke in Atlanta in 1978, was most recently COO of its North Asia, Eurasia and Middle East Group.

A Turk by birth, Kent's promotion comes despite his involvement in an incident 10 years ago that cost him his job as managing director of Coca-Cola Amatil-Europe, part of a regional bottler based in Sydney, Australia.
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Saudi Arabia views $60 as acceptable price for oil
Princeton: Saudi Arabia said $60 a barrel was an acceptable level for benchmark crude oil prices and does not want any dramatic fluctuations in the price, the kingdom's ambassador to the United States said.

Prince Turki al-Faisal said Saudi policy had always emphasized the need for gradual price movements for the sake of producers and consumers.

He stressed that Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter and the key member of OPEC, doesn't want to disrupt consumer economies.
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