The FT Sells, Amazon Amazes, Fast-Food Workers Rejoice & Other Must-Reads

Billion Dollar Baby: Nikkei swooped in and snatched up the Financial Times for $1.3 billion with a “stunning” 11th-hour bid that denied Germany’s Axel Springer a prize it had been seeking for more than a year.

The injury was accompanied by this insult: Japan’s largest media company joined the hunt for Pearson’s trophy asset only a few weeks ago.

These things are often a sprint, not a marathon. But so surprising was the outcome that the FT itself got the story wrong mere hours before the official announcement was made. What isn’t surprising is Pearson’s decision to shed another media property. The world’s largest education firm has been refocusing on its core business for years.

Let’s not call what might have been neglect, exactly, but Pearson did seem to indicate that the FT is going to be better off in another family:

#Quote

“We’ve reached an inflection point in media, driven by the explosive growth of mobile and social. In this new environment, the best way to ensure the FT’s journalistic and commercial success is for it to be part of a global, digital news company.”

— Pearson chief executive John Fallon

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Food, Glorious Fast Food: A New York state panel has just given fast-food workers a huge raise. By 2018 in NYC — and 2021 everywhere else — employees of fast-food restaurants that are part of chains with at least 30 locations will be earning no less than $15 an hour.

The big raise — these employees earn about $9 now — is courtesy of a panel, appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose recommendations are now expected to be put into effect by the state’s acting commissioner of labor.

The new $15 minimum puts New York in the company of other major cities which got there first, but it’s the first time a state has raised the minimum for a particular industry.

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A Prime Day: Amazon surprised to the upside — big time. The massive e-tailer reported Q2 EPS of $0.19 versus an expected loss of $0.14. Other measures were similarly off-the-charts: Sales rose 20% year-over-year and “were more than $300 million higher than the highest of 36 estimates from analysts polled by Reuters.”

Investors were ... pleased. AMZN Shares were up as much as a whopping 18% after hours which means — at least for a frothy moment — that Amazon has surpassed Walmart as the largest U.S. retailer by market cap.

By revenue, however, it’s Walmart by an Arkansas mile:

#Chart

#Stat

81.7%

The percentage of Amazon Prime customers who bought something from the company in May

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In Other Earnings:

McDonald's disappoints: U.S. sales fell more than expected "despite new promotions and other turnaround initiatives in its critical home market." Bring on all-day breakfast.

Starbucks surprises: Global same-store sales were up 7% (vs. 6.2% expected). In the U.S., the biggest market, make that 8% (6.3%). Total net profit was up 22%.

AT&T was mixed: EPS was $0.69 ($0.63) on expected revenue of about $33 billion. They added 2.1 million customers, though, as Ina Fried reports for <re/code>, "more than half of the new additions were from connected cars, and another 600,000 came from tablets and other non-phone devices.

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Cover Art: Protesters demanding a raise on the minimum wage to $15 per hour on December 4, 2014 in New York (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)