STARBUCKS TO CLOSE 600 STORES

Is the daily frappuccino the victim of high gas prices?

The Seattle Times is reporting that Starbucks is closing 600 company owned stores due to the nation’s faltering economy.

The closures are expected to affect some 12,000 Starbucks employees (about 7% of the company’s workforce.)

The stores shutting down are mainly in urban areas that already have competing Starbucks and is almost exclusively of stores that opened since 2006. In fact, almost 20% of the company owned Starbucks that have opened in the last two years are slated for closure.

THE FIRST STARBUCKS OPENED IN SEATTLE’S PIKE PLACE MARKET IN 1971

BILL GATES RETIRES FROM MICROSOFT

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YOUTUBE VIDEO ON BILL GATES LAST DAYS WITH TONS OF CELEBRITY CAMEOS INCLUDING BARACK OBAMA

Computer guru Bill Gates is retiring. His last official day at Microsoft was Friday. Gates, who is 52-years-old, is leaving the computer giant to spend more time working with his charity The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Gates founded Microsoft in 1975 along with Paul Allen. It has become the largest computer software company in the history of the world. Gates has served as the company’s CEO and chief software architecht.

Microsoft has also made Gates incredibly wealthy. His personal wealth reached over $46 billion. He annually tops the Forbes magazine list of the richest people in the world. Gates is no longer # 1 on that list-primarily since he has given so much of his money away to charity.

 

COMPUTER ICON BILL GATES WALKS OFF INTO THE SUNSET

NEWSPAPERS SUCK: ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER OUTSOURCES JOBS TO INDIA

Here’s the latest example of why newspapers are dying. The Orange County Register has announced it is outsourcing many of its editing jobs to India.

The paper has gone through three rounds of layoffs in the past year. The latest was in April when they cut 90 jobs. All newspapers are declining in circulation and ad sales but the OCR has been hit particularly hard. They  recently dropped from the third-largest newspaper in California to the fifth-largest, behind the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, San Diego Union-Tribune and Sacramento Bee. 

EUROPEANS TRY TO TAKE OVER BUDWEISER!

THIS BUD’S FOR EU

Belgian brewer InBev has made a $46 billion buyout offer to Anheuser-Busch, the largest brewery in America. The makers of Budweiser are not commenting on the CASH offer (which may be too good for the company to pass up) other than to say,

“The board will pursue the course of action that is in the best interests of Anheuser-Busch’s stockholders.”

Uh oh.

Local politicians are panicking over the possible sale and a website called www.savebudweiser.com has been set up to stop the sale.

FUNDING FOR CLEAR CHANNEL SALE FINALLY FINISHED

 

Clear Channel is the world’s largest radio station company. They own over 1,200 radio stations in America. According to today’s edition of Inside Radio the enormous financing deal for the sale of the company (involving multiple banks and financial institutions) has finally been completed:

 

Clear Channel: Have cash, will close.
Bain Capital and THL Partners have placed their portion of the funding for the $17.9 billion Clear Channel buyout into an escrow account. The banks deposited their cash last week. Clear Channel’s Mark Mays says the financing is “ready to deploy” as soon as shareholders approve the buyout.

 

 

Clear Channel is also one of the biggest outdoor advertising companies in the world. The company had previously sold their tv stations and gotten out of live events.

The company started in 1972 with a single radio station in San Antonio. By 1995 they had grown to 43 radio stations (mostly in Texas.) That’s when the Clinton administration passed The Telecommunications Act of 1996.

This act deregulated media ownership, allowing a company to own more radio stations in every market. Previously the amount of stations a company could have in any single market was severely restricted by the FCC. Clear Channel went on a buying spree, purchasing more than 70 other media companies, plus individual stations.

The company loaded its board with close personal friends of both Republicans (Tom Hicks was one of George W. Bush’s biggest donors and a friend of the Bush family) and Democrats (Vernon Jordan was a longtime Clinton advisor.)

The sale of Clear Channel was first announced in November of 2006. However, because of FCC red tape and the recent credit market crunch, the sale has taken a year-and-a-half to finalize. Apparently the deal is now final pending stockholder and FCC approval.

MICROSOFT CEO GETS EGGS THROWN AT HIM IN HUNGARY

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LIKE YOU COULDN’T SEE THIS COMING…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remember those commercials for LifeLock that were constantly airing on tv and radio recently? The ones where the CEO of the company brazenly gave out his social security number on the air.

Well, guess what? Not only has the guy on the LifeLock commercials (Richard Todd Davis) repeatedly had his identity stolen, but the product is so worthless the company is now the object of a class action lawsuit.

The lawsuit contends LifeLock’s identity theft protection services are so inept that Davis’ personal information was stolen. Repeatedly. More than 20 driver’s licenses have reportedly been fraudulently obtained using his personal information.

The lawsuit maintains that LifeLock, which claims on its Web site to be “the industry leader in the rapidly growing field of Identity Theft Protection,” made false and misleading claims in its multimillion-dollar ad campaign about the level of protection it provides.

SLUTBUCKS? NEW LOGO HAS CHRISTIAN GROUP OUTRAGED

 

 

 

NEW STARBUCKS LOGO

The new logo on Starbucks coffee cups has drawn outrage from a Christian group called “The Resistance.”

The group is calling for a nationwide boycott of Starbucks by all Christians.

In a press release, the group claims:

Starbucks has recently introduced a new version of their logo which features a topless mermaid with her legs spread, which has caused outrage from a nation wide Christian media watchdog organization. The Resistance, with has over 3000 members nationwide, is boycotting Starbucks across the country saying their new logo is inappropriate.

The Starbucks logo has a naked woman on it with her legs spread like a prostitute, explains Mark Dice, founder of the group. Need I say more? It’s extremely poor taste, and the company might as well call themselves, Slutbucks.

Dice and his group had previously criticized Duke basketball for their use of the term “Blue Devils” implying the name meant they were in league with Satan.

Actually, he may have a point on that one.

Dice says Starbucks is leading our nation to its demise:

The woman is actually a siren, not a mermaid, which in Greek mythology lures people to them with their beautiful songs, and then kills them, explains Dice.

Starbucks had no OFFICIAL response to the group’s proposed boycott.

DE LA HOYA SAVES $400,000 BY DROPPING BUDDIES FROM PAYROLL

 

There’s an interesting piece in the Friday edition of the Wall Street Journal. It’s about athletes and the members of their entourage.

The article notes that boxer Oscar De La Hoya saved over $ 400,000 a year by firing ten of his friends from his entourage. De La Hoya still employs 50 people.

Ron Artest was also mentioned in the article. Artest once had about 30 hanger-ons pose for an entourage photo for ESPN The Magazine.

LOUISVILLE SLUGGER OUTSOURCES TO CHINA

 

 

Although they say they will continue to manufacture their traditional wooden baseball bats in Kentucky, Louisville Slugger announced the closing of their Ontario, CA plant.

 

 

That closure put 42 Americans out of work. The plant was responsible for manufacturing aluminum softball bats. Those jobs are now being outsourced to China.