In May, Tom Stillman acquired the St. Louis Blues and a bunch of other related assets for just $130 million. One month later, the NHL approved the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan sale of its controlling interest in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment-which owns the Maple Leafs. Forbes extracted the value of the Leafs alone and figured it was bought for $1 billion. That's a big disparity: The average National Hockey League team is now worth $282 million but the spread between the rich and poor teams is dramatic.

Amidst growing signs that the U.S. economy is clearly on the mend, industry leaders are increasingly confident the auto industry is heading in fast-forward towards some extremely good - though probably not record - years. With extremely strong numbers on the way for October, Toyota's top American executive, Jim Lentz, said he expects to see 2012 end with sales of 14.3 million - about 1 million more than a year before and a roughly 40% increase from the depths of the recession.

Major tobacco companies have been ordered by a federal judge to admit they lied about the dangers of cigarettes -- and use their own money to pay for the public advertising campaign. The ruling sets out what might be the harshest sanction to come out of a case that the Justice Department brought in 1999 accusing the tobacco companies of racketeering. U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler wrote that the new advertising campaign would be an appropriate counterweight to the companies' "past deception" dating to at least 1964. The advertisements are to be published in various media for as long as …

A new commercial for Microsoft Windows Phone 8 helps to make life easier for NFL quarterback Cam Newton, including accepting a baking challenge from his mom and learning how to become a pastry chef.

Many consumers who visit a store but then buy online are not driven there by price alone, but rather by a less-than-satisfactory in-store experience, according to results from the annual holiday shopping report by the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. The survey found that 59% of shoppers sampled said they received poor or average service in the stores they recently shopped.

Last winter was the worst in two decades with snowfall down by half and March temperatures into the 80s. That meant skier visits were off by more than 20%. Some operators are using extra incentives and attractions to get people to the slopes.

Think having the chance to drive your new sports car on a closed test track and handling course might be enough to close the deal? Porsche thinks so. At the groundbreaking for its new North American headquarters in Atlanta, the automaker announced that the 26.4-acre campus would include a 1.6-mile test track where dealers will be able to bring customers to experience the full capabilities of the company's cars. Porsche calls it the Customer Experience Center and says it is an industry first.

Contributor Priska Neely ponders what that minibar packed with booze means in the world of product placement. The shot in question (the alcoholic airline pilot discovers a booze trove) showcases wine brands Yellow Tail, Barefoot, Sutter Home, Amstel Light and Heineken beers, and even Red Bull. "This scene raised a lot of questions for me: When has any hotel minibar ever contained so much alcohol? Why has Denzel done three films focusing on transportation -- two trains, and now a plane - in as many years? And how did all of these alcohol brands get so much screen time?"

Nearly 80% of parents say their kids will get the same number of toys for Christmas, even if they get on Santa's "naughty" list, according to a Walmart national holiday survey of parents and kids. But 62% of kids still think they'll get more toys if they stay on Kris Kringle's "nice" list, the survey notes.

The BMW Guggenheim Lab has launched a contest, Rethinking Kala Nagar Traffic Junction, an international search for proposals to redesign one of Mumbais busiest transportation hubs. The Kala junction connects Island City to Mumbais western suburbs through five main traffic arteries and has to deal with around 60,000 passengers per hour at peak. The competition challenges applicants to restructure the junctions traffic flow and explore ways to refit it with new public space and pedestrian functions. Proposals should also provide ideas that could be applied to traffic junctions throughout Mumbai.