Printable View
Toys Я Us filed for bankruptcy in September 2017 and announced plans to close 182 stores. If management was smart, they would have filed for bankruptcy after Christmas and not scared away millions of holiday shoppers. Management was not smart -- and the 182 store closures weren't enough.
Toys Я Us plans to close another 200 stores
Retailer’s corporate staff would also suffer layoffs following a disappointing holiday season.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/toys-r-...res-1519254948
Maybe General Mills will create a new spokesperson for the dog food company. They could call her Betty Cocker Spaniel. (Sorry.)
General Mills to buy natural pet food company Blue Buffalo for $8 billion in cash
http://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/23/gener...h-sources.html
Dropbox will be listed on NASDAQ with the symbol DBX (which sounds more like a motocross bike).
File-sharing company Dropbox files for $500 million IPO
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...c-offering?utm
This story from the London Telegraph says the new Samsung phones will sell for £739 and £869. In "Yankee dollars," that is $1,035 and $1,217. How many Americans are willing to pay more than a thousand dollars (plus tax) for a cellphone? Probably a lot fewer than Samsung is hoping for.
Samsung launches Galaxy S9 and S9+
The Telegraph, Feb 25 2018
Samsung today unveiled a smartphone that the Korean giant claims has "reimagined the smartphone camera" as it seeks to respond to Apple’s most recent iPhone. The Galaxy S9, Samsung’s new flagship device, is capable of shooting video in super-slow motion and responding to different light levels. However, the phone boasts few of the major design changes that featured in its predecessor, last year’s Galaxy S8, or Apple’s new iPhone X, leading to questions over whether it is a worthy-enough upgrade to encourage shoppers to shell out £739 for the device. The Galaxy S9+ will cost £869. The new phones will be released on March 16 and will come in Midnight Black, Coral Blue and Lilac Purple.
Global smartphone sales fell at the end of last year for the first time on record and analysts say it is unclear that Samsung’s new devices will be able to breathe new life into the market.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog...veils-latest1/
The Weinstein Co. was hurt by reports that Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted women and paid off several accusers. The Weinstein Co. was hurt by Weinstein's firing on October 8. The Weinstein Co. was hurt by Amazon and other partners cutting ties with the studio. And releasing such bombs as Gold and Burnt and Tulip Fever didn't help either.
Weinstein Co. declares bankruptcy
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/...s-through.html
Dow Chemical and DuPont merged last year and announced plans to form three publicly traded companies. Today the companies' names were revealed and two of them probably didn't require much thought:
DowDuPont unveils corporate names for its three units: Dow, DuPont, Corteva Agriscience
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/dowdu...161104893.html
Disney agreed to buy Fox's share of Sky. Then Fox agreed to buy all of Sky. Now Comcast wants to buy Sky but Disney does not want to share Sky ownership with Comcast. This is getting very confusing.
Comcast challenges Murdoch's Fox with $31 billion offer to buy broadcasting group Sky
Rupert Murdoch's Twenty-First Century Fox had already agreed on a deal to buy the 61% of the UK-based broadcasting group it does not currently own.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/27/comc...group-sky.html
Smart cars, smart TVs, smartphones, smart watches, smart cameras, smart thermostats.....and now we have smart doorbells. What's next? Maybe smart tweezers or smart shoelaces?
Amazon buys smart doorbell maker Ring for $1 billion
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/27/amaz...lexa-fund.html
The founder of Papa John's blamed slumping sales on last year's NFL player protests. It didn't occur to him to start making better pizzas. Doy!
Pizza Hut replaces Papa John's as NFL corporate sponsor
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/pizza-hu...s-nfl-sponsor/
Spotify launched in October 2008 in Stockholm and is the world's biggest music-and-video streaming service. Spotify will be listed on the NYSE.
Spotify files for IPO of up to $1 billion
Reuters, Feb 28 2018 2:50 PM
Music streaming service Spotify today filed for a direct listing of up to $1 billion with the US Securities & Exchange Commission, becoming the first major company in the recent past to do so. A direct listing is an unconventional way to pursue an IPO and will help Spotify list without the need to raise new capital or hire a Wall Street bank or broker to underwrite the offering.
https://www.aol.com/article/finance/...lion/23373621/
Donald Trump today announced plans to impose 25% tariffs on steel imports and 10% tariffs on aluminum imports -- and fears of Trump leading us into a trade war caused the Dow to lose 420 points (1.7%).
Trump announces plans for heavy tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, inviting a trade war with China
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...301-story.html
This is from Bloomberg -- and I can't say I'm sorry about iHeart's bankruptcy. Cox, Cumulus, iHeart, Alpha Media, Townsquare Media and other gigantic broadcasting corporations have destroyed live-and-local radio.
iHeartMedia prepares for bankruptcy as soon as this weekend
Documents are circulating without an accord on restructuring.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...s-this-weekend
I suppose this story counts as "business news." It also counts as "child endangerment."
McDonald's forces teen to eat outside in freezing cold for wearing her school uniform
Business Insider, Mar 2 2018 6:14 AM
The UK is in the grip of a dramatic cold snap this week. Despite this, McDonald's forced a 14-year-old student to eat her food outside because she was wearing her school uniform. Lucy Haffenden and an unnamed friend were asked by staff at a McDonald's branch in Erith, south London, to eat their cheeseburgers outside Monday afternoon. Temperatures in London hovered between 0 and -4 degrees Celsius (32 to 25 Fahrenheit) that day. McDonald's acknowledged the incident and said it was enforcing a blanket ban on children in uniform eating in the restaurant, regardless of the weather.
https://www.aol.com/article/finance/...-mcd/23375183/
An entire restaurant chain has gone out of business! All one location of it!
Chipotle closes its only burger restaurant, Tasty Made, in Lancaster, Ohio
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money...hio/390082002/
An increasing number of people are shunning Foot Locker and other shoe stores and buying shoes from Amazon and other online sellers. Wouldn't it be more sensible to purchase shoes from a real store where you can try them on to make sure they fit properly?
Foot Locker is closing 110 more stores
Business Insider, Mar 2 2018 4:26 PM
Foot Locker announced today that it plans to close 110 stores this year and open about 40 new stores. "We continue to prune the fleet of under-productive stores and open a few select, high-profile stores," CFO Lauren Peters said in a call with investors. Foot Locker closed 147 stores globally in 2017. The retailer also opened 94 new locations, bringing the retailer's store count to 3,310 around the world.
https://www.aol.com/article/finance/...n-fl/23375619/
Who knows? They might turn out to be safer than the taxis on our city streets -- and faster, too.
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg believes flying taxis will be ready in the next decade
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...303-story.html
Donald Trump, who declared that "trade wars are good and easy to win," said he will impose huge tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. Then Europe threatened to impose huge tariffs on goods imported from the US. And now, one threat has led to another:
Trump vows to tax European car imports if the EU fights back with tariffs on US goods
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/w...ble/391805002/
When do I know an insurance company is overcharging for insurance? When they have an extra $15.3 billion to spend.
AXA, Europe's second-largest insurer, buys Bermuda-based XL Group for $15.3 billion
https://www.reuters.com/article/xl-g...-idUSL5N1QN0O3
Lacoste made 1,775 shirts depicting endangered animals. They quickly sold out -- the shirts, not the animals -- and the proceeds went to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A very nice gesture by Lacoste.
French clothing brand Lacoste temporarily replaces crocodile logo with images of ten endangered species
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/offbea...ies/ar-BBJSqxD
This is from Talkers.com, March 5. I've read this five times and I still can't understand it. It's a thousand times more confusing than the Groucho-and-Chico contract scene from A Night At The Opera. A Reader's Digest editor could probably condense all this into a single sentence:
iHeartMedia gets breathing room to settle debt issue
Industry watchers were expecting iHeartMedia to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection over the weekend as the default on a missed $103 million payment on 14% Senior Notes was about to kick in. That didn’t happen and iHeart announces that yesterday it "and certain lenders party thereto (the 'Consenting Lenders') entered into a Forbearance Agreement (the 'Forbearance Agreement'), with respect to the Credit Agreement, dated May 13, 2008, as amended and restated February 23, 2011 (as further amended or supplemented from time to time, the 'Credit Agreement'), among iHeartCommunications, as the parent borrower, the subsidiary co-borrowers and foreign subsidiary revolving borrowers party thereto, iHeartMedia Capital I, LLC, as a guarantor, Citibank, N.A., as administrative agent, swing line lender and letter of credit issuer, and the other lenders from time to time party thereto.
The Consenting Lenders constitute the lenders required under the Credit Agreement to grant a forbearance. Pursuant to the Forbearance Agreement, the Consenting Lenders agreed to temporarily forbear from accelerating the obligations under the Credit Agreement or otherwise exercising any rights or remedies thereunder as a result of any actual or prospective event of default under Section 8.01(e) of the Credit Agreement resulting from iHeartCommunications’ failure to make an interest payment beyond the applicable grace period with respect to its 14% Senior Notes due 2021 that was originally due on February 1, 2018.
The forbearance became effective upon all parties’ execution thereof and will terminate immediately and automatically upon the earliest to occur of (i) March 7, 2018 at 11:59 pm Central time and (ii) an event of default under the Credit Agreement other than those that resulted in the entry into the Forbearance Agreement (the 'Forbearance Period')."
http://www.talkers.com