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The Denny's chain began in 1953 with a doughnut shop in Lakewood, California. There are now more than 1,600 Denny's locations and the company is planning to sell more than half of the restaurants it owns. They will reap more profit from franchises than from ownership.
Denny's stock skyrockets as company announces plans to sell as many as 125 restaurants
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...be8U?ocid=AMZN
The Justice Department is fighting the AT&T-Time Warner merger. AT&T disputes the government's claim that the merger will lead to higher prices for consumers. Umm.....don't all mergers and takeovers lead to higher prices for consumers? Case in point:
HBO channels, now controlled by AT&T, are yanked off Dish and Sling TV
Los Angeles Times, Nov 1 2018 4:50 PM
More than two million Dish Network customers nationwide have lost access to HBO and Cinemax in the latest escalation of hardball negotiations over carriage fees. The dispute marks the first-ever blackout of HBO in its more than 40-year history and comes less than five months after telecommunications giant AT&T gained control of the channels.
HBO, which boasts such premium programming as Game of Thrones, Silicon Valley and Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, has long maintained amicable relations with its distribution partners because it relies on them to help market its channels. But now HBO has a new corporate owner — AT&T — which also owns Dish's biggest competitor, DirecTV. The dispute centers on how much Dish Network will pay to carry HBO and Cinemax. The blackout affects about 2.5 million of the 13 million Dish customers, including those who subscribe to Sling TV, and creates a public relations nightmare for AT&T.
http://www.latimes.com/business/holl...101-story.html
October 31 was Hallowe'en. Today is the second and final day of Día de los Muertos. (But shouldn't that be Días?) And now we have the return of Geoffrey, the giraffe who just will not stay dead. Mwah-hah-hah-haaaah!
Toys Я Us to open holiday pop-up shops in 600 Kroger stores
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/toys-r-...kroger-stores/
I wonder why Trump isn't also investigating Twitter. Oh, wait. Never mind. Forget I asked.
Trump says he's 'looking at' whether Amazon, Facebook and Google are violating antitrust laws
https://www.businessinsider.com/trum...itrust-2018-11
The word "underperforming" dates from 1971. Since that time, every retail chain that closes several of its stores says the stores were "underperforming." I don't know who came up with the word but I bet it was a CEO of a retail chain.
Lowe's is closing 51 stores in the US and Canada
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news...ada/ar-BBPmBOB
"On my honor, I will try to serve God and my country, to help people at all times and to live by the Girl Scout Law" -- and to file lawsuits when necessary.
Girl Scouts sue Boy Scouts over name change
CNN, Nov 7 2018 5:01 PM ET
The Girl Scouts of the USA has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against the Boy Scouts of America after it announced that it would drop "Boy" from the name of a program in 2019. The boys' group has already begun to welcome older girls. The Girl Scouts said in the complaint filed in Manhattan federal court Tuesday that the Boy Scouts do not have the right to use "Scouts" or "Scouting." It also alleged that the Girl Scouts brand and activities will be marginalized by the Boy Scouts rebranded program, Scouts BSA. The Girl Scouts said the change has caused confusion among the public, causing them to think the Girl Scouts did not exist or had merged with the Boy Scouts. "Only GSUSA has the right to use the Girl Scouts and Scouts trademarks with leadership development services for girls," according to the complaint.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/07/us/gi...ntl/index.html
Disney will lose its interest in A+E, Blaze, Lifetime and the History Channel but will gain FX, the National Geographic channel.......and The Simpsons. D'oh!
EU approves Disney's $71 billion acquisition of Fox but company will have to divest from six networks
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/06/eu-a...vestments.html
Two Goliaths are teaming up in a move that might drive some of the Davids out of business.
What Amazon and Apple's deal means for third-party sellers
CNN Business, Nov 10 2018 2:33 PM ET
For the past eleven years, AceBeach has been selling hard-to-find electronics online. At one point, Apple products made up half of AceBeach's business but in recent years Apple has made it increasingly difficult for third-parties to sell used or new iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches. A new deal between Apple and Amazon is about to make it even harder. It could be the final blow for many small online resale and repair shops.
Amazon and Apple have struck an agreement that lets Amazon list the newest Apple and Beats products when they come out. In exchange, Amazon will remove any non-authorized third-party sellers selling Apple products from the platform. The deal will begin later this year and apply to Amazon sales in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, India, France, Germany and Spain. Amazon will sell and ship Apple products, which it will get directly from Apple. It will also list products from some approved Apple resellers.
Sellers found out about the change Friday morning in a letter from Amazon. They have until January 4, 2019 to sell their existing products before Amazon removes all their listings. Amazon recommended they contact Apple if they'd like to become an authorized reseller and continue selling products on its site. "It's just an assault on third-party resellers," said the owner of AceBeach, who asked not to be indentified. "They just want it so people like me will have to go through Apple directly."
https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/10/tech/...ers/index.html
Kellogg wants to get out of the business of making junky sugary cookies so they can concentrate on making junky sugary cereals.
Kellogg is exploring a sale of Famous Amos and Keebler
https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/12/inves...ale/index.html
Los Angeles was one of 20 cities that made the final cut in Amazon's search for a new headquarters. Los Angeles business consultant Christopher Thornberg is happy about Amazon's decision. He noted, "We have record low unemployment, skyrocketing housing costs, horrendous traffic and somehow we wanted to drop 50,000 overpaid techies into the middle of this? What the hell. I don’t get the logic." He probably speaks for almost all Angelenos.
Amazon's HQ2 is headed to New York and Virginia
Los Angeles Times, Nov 13 2018 1:00 PM
When Amazon launched its HQ2 contest last fall, dangling a prize of 50,000 high-paid jobs and a $5-billion investment, some 238 North American cities and regions embarked on a mad scramble, serving up gobs of proprietary data, along with hefty tax breaks, to host the tech titan’s satellite headquarters. Amazon today announced its decision to expand across the continent from its Seattle home, splitting its new corporate footprint between New York City and northern Virginia — plus some jobs in Nashville.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...113-story.html
I will be expecting Business Insider to publish a story in 2022 detailing how Amazon Go stores have led to a dramatic rise in our nation's unemployment numbers.
Amazon wants to open 3,000 cashier-less grocery stores
Business Insider, Nov 13 2018
Amazon will reportedly open 3,000 more Amazon Go brick-and-mortar grocery stores within three years. The four stores that have opened so far are small and carry a limited amount of groceries and prepared foods but Amazon has a major advantage over small businesses — the company has a vast amount of data it collects from customers to determine what items to stock.
https://www.businessinsider.com/amaz...-stores-2018-9
Bernie Sanders pressured Amazon into raising its hourly minimum wage to $15 -- but Amazon also eliminated bonuses and stock awards for hourly workers. With friends like Bernie, Amazon's workers don't need enemies. Now he's going after Walmart, which has a minimum wage of $11 an hour.
Bernie Sanders unveils Stop Walmart Act
CNN Business, Nov 15 2018 6:07 PM ET
Fresh off a campaign to get Amazon to raise its minimum wage, Senator Bernie Sanders is now shining his progressive spotlight on Walmart. Sanders today introduced a bill, titled the Stop Walmart Act, that would prevent large companies from buying back stock unless they pay all employees at least $15 an hour, allow workers to earn up to seven days of paid sick leave and limit CEO compensation to no more than 150 times the median pay of all staffers. Calling Walmart the poster child for corporate greed, Sanders noted that the company made $13 billion in profits last year and paid CEO Doug McMillon more than $22 million, or 1,188 times the pay of its typical worker, who earned $19,177.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/15/busin...age/index.html
"Here comes the b..........ankruptcy." Did you think I was going to say "bride"?
David’s Bridal to file for bankruptcy
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/15/davi...ankruptcy.html
Brett made a deal to start selling J.Crew clothing on Amazon but J.Crew chairman Millard Drexler disapproved and now Brett is gone. Some trivia for you: Mitchell Cinader co-founded Popular Merchandise, Inc. in 1947 in New York City. His son Arthur Cinader changed the company's name to J.Crew in 1983. He picked the name "Crew" because he enjoyed rowing and he picked the "J" simply because it sounded good next to "Crew."
J.Crew CEO James Brett steps down despite signs of a turnaround at the clothing chain
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...117-story.html
Wait till they find out it's only Monopoly money and not United States currency.
Toys Я Us workers finally get severance pay: an average $660 each
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/20-mill...-r-us-workers/
In order to satisfy the Justice Department's antitrust concerns and gain approval for the $52.4 billion purchase of 21st Century Fox, Disney, which owns ESPN, agreed to divest itself of the 22 regional Fox Sports networks -- and look who's interested:
Amazon bids for Disney’s 22 regional sports networks
CNBC, Nov 20 2018 11:48 AM
Amazon is bidding for all of the 22 regional sports TV networks that Disney acquired from 21st Century Fox. Amazon’s bid includes the New York-based YES Network, which is partly owned by Yankee Global Enterprises. Apollo Global Management, KKR, Blackstone, Sinclair Broadcast and Tegna are also making first-round bids for the regional networks. Fox, which was seen as a front-runner to reacquire the channels it recently sold to Disney, did not enter a first-round bid.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/20/amaz...urces-say.html
The first Gap store opened in 1969 in San Francisco. In the 1970s, the chain's jingle was "Fall into The Gap." There are now more than 2,300 Gaps in the US but pretty soon there will be a much smaller number of stores to "fall into."
The Gap is looking to close hundreds of stores at malls 'quickly and aggressively'
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/21/gap-...ressively.html
Making bad investments, misappropriating company assets for personal use and under-reporting his income by 50% -- and now he's been fired and presumably will have no income.
Nissan board votes to remove Carlos Ghosn as chairman
https://www.yahoo.com/news/nissan-bo...115800612.html
Here is encouraging news for those of us who still enjoy going to a real bookstore and buying real books printed with real ink on real paper: Amazon and Kindle have not driven independent bookstores to extinction. In fact, sales are up more than 5% this year.
Small bookstores are booming after nearly being wiped out
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/small-b...ness-saturday/
Here is today's Chinese language lesson: "Toy" is 玩具 (wánjù) and "giraffe" is 长颈鹿 (chángjinglù). Practice these words. They will come in handy when you go toy shopping in Asia.
Toys Я Us gears up for holiday sales — in Asia
Bankrupt in the US, the toy chain has 450 stores across Asia and is growing, as it finds smaller is better,
https://www.wsj.com/articles/toys-r-...sia-1543062604