KPO'M

Macy's Should Monetize Its Former Brands

Of course, the whole "My Macy's" campaign was a partial repudiation of the "national brand" concept. Even management admitted that trying to make every store a cookie-cutter match for all the others across the nation was a recipe for disaster. Bringing back branded merchandise is a logical next step.

Something that the article and "no more propaganda" don't point out is that Macy's has $9 billion of debt (May was a leveraged buyout). They don't just need to do less badly than their peers. They need to hit one out of the park. Selling a few of those brand names along with some prime locations would be a great way of raising that cash, at least when the private equity market recovers a bit. Chicago is a prime example. When it gets right down to it, most of the Field's fans really just care about State Street. Macy's could keep most of their locations in that market, perhaps move their flagship to Water Tower, and keep on trucking after getting the cash infusion from a sale. I'm sure the same is true in other markets.

Are American Companies Now Up For Grabs?

Where were all the flag-wavers when Miller sold to South African Breweries? Now SABMiller is merging its North American operations with a Canadian brewer (Molson-Coors), and I still hear no complaining. Why is Anheuser-Busch any different?

Anheuser / InBev: Cooler Heads Prevail

Of course, I mean "unavoidable" not "inavoidable." Anyway, perhaps all the initial hostility was just over $5/share.

Anheuser / InBev: Cooler Heads Prevail

I'm not sure going to shareholders was a blunder on InBev's part. I think it convinced A-B management that a sale was inavoidable. A lot of shareholders seemed to be interested in making a deal, Warren Buffett being one of them (a big one at that).

Why $2?

An FT columnist is saying that BSC would be worth more in Chapter 7. This will undoubtedly be challenged. Anyway, can you tell us more on the dollar? Has we finally reached the bottom?

Apple and RIM Battle for the Corporate Mobile Market

CSR, many BlackBerry devices (e.g. 8800, Curve) have full GPS receivers built in, with real-time turn-by-turn directions (not just Google Maps, which is available for free for any phone). Fair point on the other items, but Google Maps really isn't that much of an advantage for Apple. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple adds GPS to a future iPhone, though.

Apple's "Anywhere" iPhone Has Far From Peaked

They are looking for 1% market share in total. For Q4-07 they had 0.6% market share. It's a good start. I think they'll make the 10 million in 2008 (what Cook reiterated) through releases in new countries. As for unlocking vs. locked, I'm sure Apple would prefer to sell 10 million iPhones through authorized providers and get its share of the future revenue. Unlocked phones are still sales, but essentially they are sales at lower prices.

Nokia N96: Where's the Touch Screen?

Talk about missing the point of a press release entirely. Nokia indeed has a very advanced touch interface in development, and have previously stated that they will have touchscreen phones out by the end of 2008. The "gimmicky touch" comment was meant to say they weren't going to do what others have done and take an existing phone and just bolt on a touch screen that doesn't add much (e.g. Voyager vs. ENV). True, Apple caught them off guard, but I'm happy they are taking a long term view rather than release a touchscreen before it is ready.

Blinded by Flash: RIM's Excellent Results, All Eyes on Apple

(FD: I own some Nokia stock)
Stefan, Nokia already occupies a large segment of the high-end smartphone market in Europe, and they have brought over some of those devices to the US, so your comment about them not being able to compete with RIM and Apple on the high-end is perhaps short-sighted. They have a big R&D budget, and are probably best-equipped of the handset manufacturers to compete with Apple on a feature-by-feature basis. RIM does have better carrier relationships, however.