[naviga:h3]PPG completes fiberglass sale[/naviga:h3]

NEW YORK — PPG Industries Inc. has completed the sale of its fiberglass operations to Nippon Electric Glass Co.

The maker of industrial products said Tuesday proceeds were about $541 million pretax. Last year the company, which was founded in 1883 as Pittsburgh Plate Glass, sold its European fiberglass business, stakes in two Asian fiberglass joint ventures and its North American flat glass business.

Its key focus is now on paints and industrial coatings.

Nippon Electric Glass, based in Japan, gained facilities in Chester, South Carolina, and Lexington and Shelby, North Carolina; and research-and-development and administrative operations in Shelby and Harmar, Pennsylvania. The acquired business employs more than 1,000 people and had sales of about $350 million in 2016. It supplies the transportation, energy, infrastructure and consumer markets.

[naviga:h3]Lego looks wobbly after climbing back[/naviga:h3]

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — For Lego, it’s time to break down the blocks and start again.

After building up sales aggressively since a near bankruptcy in 2004 through new ventures like films and new toy lines, the company seems to have hit a peak. Its sales are now falling for the first time in 13 years and it says it needs to simplify its operations.

That means cutting 1,400 jobs, or eight percent of its global workforce.

The privately held Danish firm said Tuesday that it “now prepares to reset the company,” with a new CEO due to take over in October.

“We will build a smaller and less complex organization than we have today, which will simplify our business model in order to reach more children,” said Chairman Joergen Vig Knudstorp.

Revenue dropped 5 percent in the first six months of the year, to $2.4 billion, mainly as a result of weaker demand in key markets like the U.S. and Europe