Earlier today, there was a run on shares of United Airlines' parent company, UAL, following news that the company was filing for bankruptcy. Unfortunately, that news was six years old. Somehow it was republished over the weekend by a Tribune news company without the original dateline, and by the time trading was halted at 12:30pm today, the stock had dropped from $12.30 to $3. The newspapers are still trying to figure out what happened.

According to news aggregation site SmartBrief.com, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a Tribune paper, was the first to run the old story about United. It was posted to its Web site at roughly 1 p.m. Sunday.

Sun-Sentinel Online Editor Joe Schwerdt pulled the story off his site shortly before noon this morning, in response to a call Tribune made to Sun-Sentinel editor Earl Maucker.

"I literally just got word a couple minutes ago that there was problem," says Schwerdt. He says he did not know how the old story was posted as new and was unsure if any other Tribune papers ran it. He declined to discuss details about how his paper publishes stories on weekends.

As of the publish date of this post, shares were back up to $10.92, noticeably lower than where they were trading before the news mix-up. Oops.

"How A Botched Web Story Wiped Out UAL's Shares" [Forbes]
(Photo: Cubbie_n_Vegas)

From the WSJ:

Chief Executive Philip J. Schoonover said, "Our sales performance, while disappointing, was in line with our expectations. The company saw significantly improved performance over the last two weeks of the month, but the sales improvement was not enough to offset the weakness experienced at the beginning of the month."

We'll get you started with, "Where the hell do you pay?" Every time we're in a Circuit City there is no one stationed even remotely close to anything that resembles a register. If you do manage to spot someone who is employed by the store, he's usually c*ck-deep in boxes behind some sort of counter, trying not to cry. If there is something that appears to be a check out aisle, it's roped off like a museum exhibit. "Gather round, kids. This is what people used to use to execute retail transactions, back in the early 21st century."

Actually buying something is a 12-step process that involves little public library catalog kiosks that are randomly placed all over the store. Finding someone to able and willing to help you purchase your item is like finding a 1UP in Super Mario Bros., except instead of a free life, you get a sales pitch for an extended warranty. And you're just buying AA batteries.

Your turn.

Circuit City Sales Fell in December [WSJ]
(Photo:cmorran123)

Within the Gap empire, the numbers seem to mirror the sentiments expressed in our comments:

Gap is down 10%, Old Navy missed by 8%, and Banana Republic is only down 2%.

All three were worse than analysts expected. Does this mean that "reducing the number of styles in our stores to make it easier for our customers," didn't work? Or maybe it was the string bikinis for toddlers that drove the shoppers away?

Oh well,Todd Oldham to the rescue!

UPDATE: Gap Sales Drop Below Forecasts; Shares Dip[CNNMoney]
(Photo:bopo)

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How sweet. Well, it was true. iPhones are bricked. In fact, our sister-site Gizmodo has amended their review of the iPhone and are now recommending that you do not buy it due to the loss of cool third-party applications that will now no longer work on the updated iPhone.

(For the record, we always recommended that you not succumb to iPhone hype, and we even made the editor who loves Apple write a story about it. We're so mean.)

From BBC News (emphasis ours):

That warning has now proved correct as many owners are reporting their phones no longer work following installation of the update.

Apple requires iPhone owners to take out a lengthy contract with AT&T in the United States but there are a number of programs on the net that unlock the device for use with other networks.

Some owners are reporting on technology blogs and Apple's own forums that the update is deleting contacts information, as well as photos and music, on iPhones that have not been modified in any way.

Walked (well, more like ran) over to the nearest AT&T store. I told them my iPhone stopped working and that iTunes told me I needed a new SIM card (both true). The guy said no problem, and handed me a new SIM. He told me to install it, connect to iTunes, and activate the SIM with my existing account. Just got back, popped in the SIM, and no luck—getting the same errors.

Bricking my iPhone [Macworld]
Apple iPhone warning proves true [BBCNews] (Thanks, Papa Midnight!)
(Photo:Macworld)

As former Consumerist editor Joel Johnson once said: "Stop buying this crap. Just stop it. You don't need it. Wait a year until the reviews come out and the other suckers too addicted to having the very latest and greatest buy it, put up a review, and have moved on to something else."

So, the next time you feel the need to wait in line to get a pretty new gadget remember that you could have saved $200 bucks by waiting, uh, about 2 months, and 8 days. Give or take.

8GB iPhone Price Cut by $200, 4GB iPhone Gone [Gizmodo]
(Photo:Gizmodo)

Other celebrities in the campaign include Sean Combs, Kimora Lee Simmons, Russell Simmons, Marc Ecko, Emeril Lagasse, Tyler Florence, Tommy Hilfiger and Kenneth Cole. Some ads also feature Tim Gunn, co-host of the TV show "Project Runway." The ads were created by WPP Group's JWT.

Macy's has struggled to win over shoppers since converting 11 regional department store nameplates, including Marshall Field's, to Macy's last September. Last week, the retailer, with headquarters in New York and Cincinnati, posted a 77 percent decline in second-quarter profit on a 1.7 percent sales decline. Sales have declined for the past three quarters.

Macy's campaign turns to Donald Trump, Martha Stewart [Chicago Tribune]
(Photo:Vince Brown)

The merger with May has not gone well for Macy's, and they're having trouble integrating the Marshall Field's stores. From the Sun-Times:

Profits were hurt by higher-than-expected costs of integrating more than 400 former May Department Stores, including the Marshall Field's chain. Macy's bought the May Department Stores for $11 billion in August 2005.

But cost cuts helped shrink selling, general and administrative expenses.

Sales at the former Marshall Field's and other May stores continue to disappoint, but are closing the gap in performance with long-time Macy's stores, Chief Financial Officer Karen Hoguet said in a conference call with analysts.

The gap should close next year, but the converted Marshall Field's stores might take longer to gain acceptance, Hoguet said. Long-time Macy's stores were hurt by missteps in color and style in ready-to-wear clothing in the spring. Hoguet said Macy's executives believe they have the right fashions for fall, such as denim, wide-leg pants and novelty jackets and coats.

Tell us: What's wrong with Macy's?

Macy's cuts outlook after profit falls 77 percent for the quarter [Chicago Sun-Times]
(Photo:Meghann Marco)

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