Valeant aims to take bid for Botox maker to shareholders

Valeant Pharmaceuticals aims to take its bid for Allergan to the Botox maker’s shareholders after Allergan’s board unanimously rejected its latest offer of about $53 billion.

Valeant said Tuesday that it looked forward to giving shareholders the opportunity “to speak for themselves” after Allergan Chairman and CEO David Pyott said that the offer wasn’t worth discussing in a letter to his Valeant counterpart, Michael Pearson.

Valeant, teamed with activist investor Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management, went public with its offer to buy Allergan in April and has since upgraded its pitch several times.

Google’s buying Skybox Imaging for $500 million

Google is buying Skybox Imaging in a deal that could serve as a launching pad for the Internet company to send its own fleet of satellites to take aerial pictures and provide online access to remote areas of the world.

The $500 million acquisition announced Tuesday initially will provide Google with the means to improve the quality and immediacy of the satellite imagery used in its digital maps.

Google Inc. plans to use Skybox’s satellite already in orbit to supplement the material that it licenses from more than 1,000 sources.

Target names new chief of information security

Target Corp. has named Brad Maiorino as chief information security officer as the company overhauls its security department in the wake of a massive data breach.

The nation’s third-largest retailer, based in Minneapolis, said Tuesday that Maiorino will join the company Monday and be responsible for the company’s information security and technology risk strategy. He was General Motors Co.’ chief information security and information technology risk officer. Before that, he had a similar role at General Electric.

He will help ensure the retailer and its customers are protected against internal and external information security threats.

Downgraded economy forecast cites snow, Ukraine

The World Bank downgraded its forecast for the global economy this year, citing a bitter American winter and the political crisis in Ukraine.

In an outlook released Tuesday, the bank still expects the world economy to grow faster — 2.8 percent this year versus 2.4 percent in 2013. But its new estimate is weaker than the 3.2 percent expansion it had predicted in January.

The U.S. economy — by far the world’s largest — shrank at an annual rate of 1 percent from January to March, chilled by an unusually nasty winter. The political crisis in Ukraine dragged growth in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

– From news service reports