FB Roundup: Maersk, Nintendo, and News Corp

Two Maersk ships sink en route to Turkish scrapyard

Danish shipping company Maersk Line, owned by the McKinney-Moeller family, has confirmed that two of its offshore supply vessels sunk off the coast of France while being towed to a Turkish shipyard for recycling.

The Maersk Supply Service vessels, Maersk Searcher and Maersk Shipper, were unmanned. All employees aboard the towing vessel Maersk Battler are safe.

Both ships had been emptied of fuel and lubricants in preparation for scrapping, said Claus Bachmann, chief operating officer of Maersk Supply Service, in a statement.

“We are currently investigating the cause of the incident. No further information is available at this point in time.”

Maersk Line had revenues of $23.7 billion in 2015.

Nintendo stock falls despite hit game Super Mario Run

Japanese video game maker Nintendo, owned by the sixth generation of the Yamauchi family, has seen shares slide by 13% following the launch of its first Mario smartphone title.

Despite topping 40 million downloads just four days after its 15 December, becoming the fastest game to reach the milestone in App Store history, consumers baulked at the one-time cost of unlocking content.

The news comes in stark contrast to its flagship mobile title Pokémon Go, which helped Nintendo shares double in price and reach a six-year high. The app reportedly made revenues of $500 million in just over 60 days.

Nintendo was founded in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced playing cards.

News Corp banned from Melbourne Pride after 'homophobic' cartoon

Global media holding company News Corporation has been banned from Melbourne Pride event after running a cartoon depicting LGBT activists as Nazis.

The controversial image was illustrated by cartoonist Bill Leak and features a troop of Nazi-like soldiers alongside the caption “Waffen – SSM”, a references to the armed wing of the Nazi Party.

News Corp Australia released the image during a time when the country debated whether to introduce same-sex marriage.

'We are… now acutely aware that continued community concerns are threatening to fracture our communities in potentially destructive ways,' said a statement from event organiser Midsumma.

The Murdoch family controls almost 40% of News Corp voting shares, while owning just 12%, with annual revenues of $8.63 billion.