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(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Oakbrook Terrace-based Redbox announced Thursday that it has reached a deal with CVS/pharmacy to roll out DVD rental kiosks at CVS and Longs Drugs locations nationwide and in Puerto Rico.
The $1-per-night DVD vendor, a subsidiary of Coinstar Inc., said about 700 kiosks will arrive at CVS locations by the end of 2010, and expand to thousands of locations by the end of 2011. Get the full story »
R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co.’s second-quarter profit more than tripled, beating expectations, following prior-year charges as revenue increased more than expected. Get the full story »
Playboy Enterprises Inc. said Tuesday its board of directors has formed a special committee to consider founder Hugh Hefner’s proposal to buy out the rest of the company.
The committee will consist of attorney Sol Rosenthal, who will serve as its chairman, and Playboy director Shing Tao. Rosenthal is a counsel at international law firm Arnold & Porter, while Tao is chairman and chief investment officer of Pacific Star Partners, a private investment group. Get the full story »
Barnes & Noble, the world’s largest specialty bookseller, said it was reviewing a possible sale as its board believes its shares are significantly undervalued. Barnes & Noble shares soared 21 percent after the company announced formation of a special committee of four independent directors to consider all options for increasing shareholder value.
Shareholder Leonard Riggio has told the board he would consider being part of a wider investor group that could buy the company. Get the full story »
Tribune Co.’s attempts to exit bankruptcy court will be delayed at least until October, but could extend even beyond that as the company and its creditors dive into a new round of negotiations aimed at finally settling the 20-month-old Chapter 11 case.
The delay is an acknowledgment that an examiner’s report about the propriety of the company’s 2007 leveraged buyout has upset a previous settlement in the case and forced the company to redouble efforts to win the approval from a range of dissident creditors. Get the full story »
An investment bank declined to give Tribune Co. a clean bill of financial health in 2007 that would have cleared the way for Sam Zell’s $8.2 billion leveraged buyout of the media conglomerate, people familiar with the matter said.
Houlihan Lokey, a Los Angeles-based bank, rejected overtures from Tribune around March 2007 to provide what is known as a “solvency opinion” that would label Zell’s takeover financially sound, these people said. Houlihan believed the deal would saddle the newspaper-and-television company with too much debt, they said. Get the full story »
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is investigating deals struck by Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. to offer low prices on electronic books, saying the agreements may block rivals from providing attractive pricing.
Earlier this year, Amazon and Apple worked out a “most favored nations” deal with major publishers, ensuring rival booksellers would not be able to work out an even lower price, Blumenthal said. Get the full story »
Tribune Co. proposed paying its top 43 executives a severance package of cash and benefits if they are asked by a new board to leave the company after the Chicago-based media conglomerate emerges from bankruptcy.
The company didn’t put a price tag on the package, but said it amounts to 2.5 times salary and bonus for Chief Executive Randy Michaels, and 2.25 times salary and bonus for Chief Operating Officer Gerry Spector. Both would be entitled to 24 months of the company’s group health benefits.
Nine other top executives, including Tony Hunter, the publisher of the Chicago Tribune, and Eddy Hartenstein, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, would get 1.75 times salary and bonus plus 24 months of benefits. A list of 32 others would get 1.5 times salary and 18 months of benefits.
Tribune Co. filed the plan late Thursday as part of a supplement to its plan of reorganization.
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U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey signed an order providing certain key parties access to the full examiner’s report in the Tribune Co. bankruptcy case so they can evaluate its momentous conclusions before an Aug. 6 voting deadline.
He also indicated he might move the deadline out by a few days, but said he was determined not to disrupt the schedule for confirmation hearings on the Tribune Co. plan which are slated to begin Aug. 30.
Carey stopped short of ordering full public disclosure of the report. But he indicated he would prefer to make it public if parties in the case can resolve a series of confidentiality disputes raised by several big lenders to Tribune Co.’s ill-fated 2007 leveraged buyout, which was led by Chicago real estate magnate Sam Zell. Get the full story »
The latest news on the earliest news is that there will be yet one more local newscast starting before the sun — like most viewers — is up. WFLD-Ch. 32 on Thursday said it too will move the start of its early weekday morning newscast with Dawn Hasbrouck and Kori Chambers up a half-hour to 4:30 a.m., beginning Monday.
Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson are returning to the anchor chairs on WBBM-TV Ch. 2 in a bid to revive the station’s news ratings.
Goodbye, Comcast Twitter guy.
Frank Eliason, the social-media apostle who responded to tens of thousands of online Comcast Corp. customer complaints in the last two years, is leaving the cable company to help banking giant Citigroup Inc. connect with customers online. Get the full story »
Nancy Pender is set to leave WFLD-Ch. 32 next month after 13 years as a reporter and weekend anchor at the Fox-owned station.
A Channel 32 spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday that Pender’s contract is not being renewed.
British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC Wednesday confirmed it plans to launch a 3D television channel for consumer subscribers Oct. 1.
BSkyB, the U.K.’s biggest pay-television provider, said customers who pay for its top-tier subscription package and have Sky + high-definition compatible set-top boxes would get the 3D channel free of charge. The company may later allow subscribers on lower-cost packages to obtain the service, a spokesman said. Get the full story »
Comcast Corp., the No. 1 U.S. cable operator, reported a nearly 9 percent decline in quarterly profit as it absorbed expenses related to its highly anticipated acquisition of NBC Universal.
While costs associated with the deal, including professional fees, undercut the cable company’s overall profit, its revenue rose a higher-than-expected 6 percent as it continued to add Internet and telephone customers. Get the full story »
