Steve Wozniak becomes Australian resident; La Porchetta ends sale negotiations with Retail Food Group: Midday Roundup

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has become an Australian resident and plans on living out the rest of his life Down Under.

The entrepreneur – who founded Apple in California in 1976 with Steve Jobs – has had his permanent residency approved, according to Fairfax.

Wozniak applied for Australian citizenship in 2012 and in October this year joined the University of Technology Sydney as an adjunct professor.

“I want to be a distinguished part of this country and someday I may say I lived and died an Australian, and that would be a really nice thing to be able to say,” he told The Australian Financial Review.

“No country is perfect, but I like a lot of things about this place.”

La Porchetta ends sale negotiations with Retail Food Group

Popular Italian restaurant chain La Porchetta has withdrawn from sale negotiations with Retail Food Group.

In a statement, La Porchetta said the deal was “not in the company’s best interest” on the basis of both shareholder interests and company values.

In November, it was revealed Retail Food Group had taken a potential acquisition deal with La Porchetta off the table.

Retail Food Group, which owns multiple brands including Donut King, Michel’s Patisserie and Brumby’s Bakery, originally flagged its intention to purchase 70 La Porchetta restaurants in August, after posting a healthy net profit of $36.9 million for the 2013-14 financial year.

Shares up on open

The Australian sharemarket made gains again this morning, mirroring a strong session on Thursday morning.

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark was up 72.7 points, rising 1.38%, to 5283.5 points at 11:35am AEDT. On Thursday, the Dow Jones closed 421.28 points higher, up 2.43%% to 17778.15 points.