General Motors Corp. won’t be the automotive sponsor for the New York Yankees when the team’s new stadium opens next year.
Yankees chief operating officer Lonn Trost said Tuesday that Toyota and Audi will take over as the club’s auto sponsors. The new deals are for ballpark signage, as was the previous contract with GM.
General Motors was a Yankees sponsor from 2006-08.
“We understand their financial condition,” Trost said. “I think it was a mutual understanding.”
GM spokesman John McDonald said that in light of the current economic conditions, the automaker is reviewing all of its sponsorship activities as part of a plan to cut its marketing and promotions budget by 20 percent.
In addition, contracts with about six other major league teams expire at the end of this year, and those deals are being reviewed as well.
GM also recently decided against renewing a similar contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but its broader contract with MLB runs through 2010.
Last month, GM’s Buick brand said it was concluding its marketing contract with Tiger Woods one year early. That contract was valued at $7 million per year.
The automaker said in September that it would not air a TV advertisement during the 2009 Super Bowl. That came after announcement that it was also passing on airing ads during the Emmy Awards and the Academy Awards.
McDonald said he couldn’t comment on the values of the contracts involved or the amount of money GM expected to save by eliminating them.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More