Reitmans Out of Protection

Posted by & filed under Advanced Accounting, Corporate Strategy.

Description: Fashion chain Reitmans is exiting creditor protection after 20 months. The company, with HQ in Montreal, has paid its creditors roughly $95 million, about 1/2 of the amount owing based on public disclosures provided by the monitor Ernst & Young Inc. in September 2020. Between its Reitmans brand and its related stores, RW&CO and… Read more »

The Texas Cold Crisis

Posted by & filed under Canadian governments, Corporate Strategy.

Description: In an extraordinary week of cold weather, Texas has been dealing with a crisis. Power failures left many Texans in the cold, then freezing water pipes and crippled water treatment plants created a shortage of clean drinking water. This crisis may prompt governments and utilities in North America to consider just how resilient our… Read more »

Now There Are 3

Posted by & filed under Corporate Strategy, Financial Reporting and Analysis.

Description: US cellular customers are now dealing with a world in which there are only 3 major carriers. T-Mobile has received regulatory approval to purchase Sprint. Along with the deal, T-Mobile has promised to hold the line on rates and to improve service in rural areas. Some critics maintain that it will be very difficult… Read more »

HBC Going Private

Posted by & filed under Corporate Strategy.

Description: HBC is no longer going to be a publicly-traded company. Chairman Richard Baker won a shareholders’ vote in his third bid to take the company private. In June 2019 Baker offered $9.45 a share, but this drew negative shareholder reaction. By this January the offer was sweetened to $11 per share, and 98% of… Read more »

Big Bucks for Listing

Posted by & filed under Corporate Strategy, Ethics.

Description: Amazon is giving toymakers favourable promotion for the upcoming Christmas sales season – if they are prepared to pay up to $ 2 million. There’s nothing illegal about charging the toy manufacturers a fee for their place in the sun. But some have commented that the practice is not clearly disclosed to consumers. They… Read more »

The fees of flying

Posted by & filed under Corporate Strategy.

Description:   Really – no really – apparently there was a time when airline travel was fun. One of the things that has taken some of the fun out of flying is the growing bevy of fees. Fees for Luggage. Fees for a cold beverage. More fees to pick your seat. All these fees keep creeping… Read more »

Blackberry Shares Rising

Posted by & filed under Corporate Strategy.

Description:  After years of being on death watch, Blackberry is turning things around. Financial results for the latest quarters showed a profit of over $40 million U.S. These days the company is making its money in software and its fast-growing automotive division. Hiring is up and the company is looking for 1,000 or so engineers…. Read more »

The Bug

Posted by & filed under Corporate Strategy.

Description:  The Volkswagen Beetle – often popularly known as the Bug – is on the endangered species list. Volkswagen announced last week that the final editions of the Beetle will probably roll off of the assembly line by next summer. CEO Hinrich Woebcken of Volkswagen USA did hold out a bit of hope for a revival… Read more »

He keeps on saying he’s sorry

Posted by & filed under Corporate Strategy, Data security.

Description:  It was a big week for Facebook this week as founder Mark Zuckerberg headed to Washington to say how sorry he was for the Cambridge Analytics fiasco. But as the Washington Post observed, it seems that Facebook has had a rather long history of saying “sorry” when it comes to issues of data security…. Read more »

Apple Chips

Posted by & filed under Corporate Strategy.

Description:  Apple is planning on making its own chips for its Mac computers, perhaps dropping Intel as a supplier. Apple reportedly is responsible for about 5% of Intel’s revenue. By producing its own chips for Macs, Apple could gain the advantage of better integration between its various offerings of hardware and software. Date: April 2, 2018… Read more »