In what would be the largest lawsuit in the history of mankind, Bank of America has threated to sue LaSalle Bank’s parent company if it fails to acquire the Chicago bank. Bank of America had a deal in place to buy LaSalle from its parent company ABN Amro, when a group of European bankers lead by the Royal Bank of Scotland stepped in with a hostile bid for the entire company. Just for some perspective on how ridiculously huge a $220 billion lawsuit is:
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Feeling Cingular
By 4.30.07
Justin Callaway’s Cingular cellphone sent radio interference that destroyed one of his prized speakers, so he made an awesome music video about it.
Morning Deals
By 4.30.07
• Other Music: New online music store featuring 320kbps DRM-free high-quality indie and underground mp3s. $1.29/ track, $9.99-$12.99/album
Home Depot Has "Alternative Fuel Only" Parking, Chicagoans Don't Care
By 4.28.07
The Cars.com Blog “Kicking Tires” has some photos of some “alternative fuel only” parking spaces at a Chicago Home Depot., including one of a Land Rover parked in one of the spots. Either the dude in the parking spot hasn’t figured it out yet, or he/she/it is running biodiesel? Has Chicago turned into California since we left?
Walmart Pulls Contaminated Frozen Catfish From China
By 4.28.07
Fluoroquinolone was reportedly banned by the FDA in 1997, but Florida food safety experts officials told CBS-4’s Al Sunshine that it is not an imminent threat to public health and it’s more of an issue of keeping unneeded antibiotics out of the human food supply.
Bank of America May Not Get LaSalle Bank After All
By 4.28.07
Now, however, a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland aims to upset that deal with an uninvited $98.6 billion takeover offer. The Scottish bank would keep LaSalle, while a couple of partners would carve up the remaining ABN Amro operations around the world (see BusinessWeek.com, 4/26/07, “The Making of a Monolith”).
Bones Of 10,000 Year Old Camel Found On Walmart Site
By 4.28.07
Workers digging at the site of a future Wal-Mart store in suburban Mesa have unearthed the bones of a prehistoric camel that’s estimated to be about 10,000 years old.
Wiis At Target This Sunday
By 4.28.07
At least 60 Wiis will be arriving and selling at Target stores this Sunday, according to an inside source.
Customizing the Motorola Vxxx
By 4.27.07
Here’s a cool guide for hacking your Motorola Vxxx (x being a wildcard) so you can make it show the color styles, shutdown and startup animations, outer text displays, etc, that you want.
Scrounged Up Bank's Fee Schedules
By 4.27.07
After more digging, we ferreted out some of those notoriously hard to find bank’s fee schedules. These list all the fees a bank can levy against a consumer’s personal checking or savings account. Most are buried to some extent, limiting consumer’s abilities to shop around.
Target And Walmart Are The New Music Tastemakers
By 4.27.07
In past decades, deejays and music critics helped shape musical trends. Today, many music industry executives agree, the big boxes have become the new tastemakers. Even as compact disc sales fall, their choices dictate which CDs are widely available on store shelves across the U.S. Big boxes are the industry’s biggest distribution channel — and the rock, hip-hop, jazz and classical music titles they choose not to carry face drastically reduced chances of reaching mass audiences.
Bank Of America Manager Escalation Line
By 4.27.07
If you have an intractable issue with Bank of America, and calls to regular customer service and attempts to escalate are unsuccessful, try the manager escalation line:
Morning Deals
By 4.27.07
• Amazon: Factory-Reconditioned DEWALT DW988K-2R 18-Volt XRP 1/2-Inch drill/driver/hammerdrill kit for $129.99 with free shipping (down from $522)
6 Documents Sprint Reps Have That You Don't That Could Help You Buy Your Next Cellphone
By 4.27.07
If you’re shopping for a Sprint phone and or plan, you might find this six documents useful handed to us by one of their recently fired customer service reps.
80 Sprint Department Phone Numbers
By 4.27.07
Inside, a list of 80 different Sprint company phone numbers by department.
How To Negotiate What You Want From Sprint Retentions
By 4.27.07
A former call center worker told us how to get to, and deal with, Sprint retentions department so they will fix billing errors, or waive fees.
UPDATE: Kitten-Filled YouTube Mocks T-Mobile's $629 Foot-Dragging
By 4.26.07
From what we can gather, T-mobile said he was responsible for all charges made before he reported the incident. Then they said they would wipe all the charges, after he faxed a police report. Then they kept saying they never got the fax.
A Document Alltel Looks At When You Want To Cancel Cellphone Service
By 4.26.07
Inside is an official Alltel internal company document on what they’re supposed to do when customers call up asking to cancel their cellphone service.
