Fast food’s cutest redhead is wooing the burger business’s West Coast bad boy, as a new report says the parent company of Wendy’s is cooking up a last-minute bid to buy Carl’s Jr. owners CKE. [More]
mergers
Other Cable Companies Are Pissed About The Comcast NBC Merger
By 2.3.10
The Comcast/NBC merger probably sucks for consumers, but it sure as hell sucks for other cable companies. Like, for example, WOW!. They are a smallish cable company that competes with Comcast in Chicagoland and in Detroit. [More]
Rip Torn, Fake CEO Of GE, Found Drunk And Armed In A Bank
By 2.1.10
Rip Torn, who plays the fictional CEO of GE on 30 Rock, was arrested after being found drunk and armed in a bank in his hometown. He has pleaded not guilty, says the New York Post. This sort of behavior is apparently not altogether unexpected. [More]
Speak Out Against Ticketmaster-Live Nation Merger At TicketDisaster.org
By 12.17.09
Yesterday a bunch of consumer advocates and anti-trust people held a press conference on Capitol Hill and asked the Department of Justice to block the Ticketmaster-Live Nation merger. If you, too, feel that this spells nothing but trouble for consumers–that a Ticketmaster-Live Nation monopoly would ruin competition and increase ticket prices–then check out the website TicketDisaster.org. From there, you can contact the DOJ to voice your opinion about the proposed merger, read up on reasons why the merger sucks for consumers and for the concert industry, and sign up for updates. (Thanks to JammingEcono!)
Why A Comcast/NBC Merger Is Bad News
By 12.3.09
As the Comcast/NBC mergepocalypse draws near, we wanted to remind readers of the ways that this is going to harm consumers (beyond the obvious things like 30 Rock being promised to come on between 6 and 10 pm and actually airing at 11:30). Join us for a sad look into the future. [More]
Update On Possible Comcast/Ticketmaster/Live Nation Abomination (With Poll)
By 11.18.09
After yesterday’s news that Comcast was considering getting in on the already-under-antitrust-scrutiny merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation, the original article has been updated to be slightly less bad.
Dear God: Comcast To Consider Partnering With Ticketmaster
By 11.17.09
When you read about the proposed Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger, you might have thought to yourself, “Sure, this would be a merger between the world’s largest ticketing company and the largest concert promoter, but I think it could be more horrifying.” Comcast apparently agrees, as they’re considering getting in on the merger.
UK May Block Ticketmaster-Live Nation Merger, Save Universe
By 10.8.09
While U.S. authorities are still trying to figure out whether letting the Godzilla and Megalon of ticket-selling join forces is a good thing, the U.K. has come to the rescue of concertgoers worldwide. The Competition Commission declared that the merger would “will limit the development of competition in the market for live music ticket retailing.”
Alltel Customers Nervous About Verizon Switchover
By 7.31.09
Julia and her husband are former unhappy Verizon customers who thought they had escaped by signing on with Alltel, only to be sucked back in when Verizon’s took over the company.
Chase/WaMu Changeover Leads To Comical Levels Of Customer Inconvenience
By 6.3.09
Shawn was a faithful Washington Mutual customer, and by default is now a Chase customer. Sort of. He learned that the transition will take until September (September?!) and he can’t deposit personal checks in his account—even at a branch—without elaborate workarounds. What kind of bank is that?!
By 5.29.09
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It’s like the dot-com boom is finally over. Time Warner is spinning AOL off into its own company once again by the end of the year. AOL will get most of the terrible customer service in the divorce. [Bloomberg]
Will Apple Gobble Up Electronic Arts?
By 5.5.09
CNBC’s Guy Adami said on CNBC’s Fast Money TV show that there’s talk that Apple may try to take over video game goliath Electronic Arts.
Bank Of America CEO: The Bush Administration Made Me Do It!
By 4.24.09
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office is at it again. They’ve been investigating the circumstances that led to the merger of Bank of America and Merrill Lynch and the subsequent bonus payments to executives. In a letter to Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Cuomo quotes Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis as saying that former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson threatened him with removal from his position and mass firing of the board and senior management if he didn’t allow the merger to go through.
Ticketmaster And Live Nation Agree To Merge
By 2.10.09
That booming evil laughter you heard echoing across the sky earlier today came from the board room where Live Nation and Ticketmaster agreed to an all-stock merger between their two blighted companies. Ticketmaster Chairman Barry Diller says the merger will benefit customers, who are frequently “frustrated by their ticket buying experiences.” Oh! So by merging the two companies most responsible for those frustrations, we’ll cancel them out! This is doubleplus good, right?
Congressman Wants Ticketmaster Investigated For 'TicketsNow' Website
By 2.4.09
Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D) of New Jersey has asked the FTC and the Justice Department to investigate the relationship between Ticketmaster and its reseller website, TicketsNow, after consumers who tried to buy Bruce Springsteen tickets encountered technical problems that prevented purchase, and were then redirected to TicketsNow where prices were “hundreds of dollars above face value” (actually, more like “thousands of dollars,” based on our check just a few minutes ago).
Ticketmaster, Live Nation Consider Merging, Destroying Concertgoing Forever
By 2.4.09
The two companies most responsible for making your next live entertainment experience a financial disaster may announce a merger as early as this week, reports Reuters and the WSJ. If it goes ahead, the new company will apparently call itself Live Nation Ticketmaster, not “Satan’s Boxoffice” as one might expect. The merger will raise antitrust issues, but if Sirius/XM has taught us anything, it’s that those issues can be ignored at the expense of consumer choice and pricing.
Confirmed: Sirius Radio Raising Rates March 11
By 1.21.09
Sirius Radio customer service reps are now telling subscribers that the rumored rate hike is indeed going to happen. This means, at the very least:
WaMu To Close 299 Branches, Many In Chicago
By 1.21.09
Chase has announced that they will be closing 299 branches, 57 of them in the Chicago-area alone. The Daily Herald says that most of the branches are across the street or down the block from existing Chase branches and consolidation is necessary. The remaining WaMu branches will be converted to the Chase brand.
