Archive for the ‘Business’ Category

This morning in a terrible show of corporate responsibility, Bennigan’s contacted their managers at 7:30a and told them to be on a conference call at 8a. They were told in no uncertain terms, ‘We’re closing. Lock up and go home.” The managers were told to furlough all employees and leave — for good and oh, by the way, don’t talk to the media.

The parent company of Bennigan’s, Ponderosa and Steak & Ale is Plano based Metromedia Restaurant Group. The company has filed for Chapter 7 - rather than Chapter 11 which allows for reorganization. A few weeks ago, as we reported on this blog, Bennigan’s had quietly shuttered most of their locations in the Florida market. Now, it’s nationwide.

Metromedia is supposed to be issuing a statement later today.

This move places hundreds of Dallas area workers on the unemployment line.

In late May, Clay Dover, president and chief executive of Metromedia, quit abruptly after about six months on the job saying he and the owners could not agree on “the strategic direction for the company.”

Days later, the company denied a report in The Wall Street Journal that it had prepared a bankruptcy filing, but admitted that it was “currently in the process of formulating a proposal to present to its lenders to restructure its indebtedness…”

Due to the recent economic situation, restaurant business is down across the nation approximately 35%.

NOTE: Links were not included in this posting because all related sites to Metromedia / Bennigan’s are off line.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is one of at least three potential buyers who still has a chance to purchase the Chicago Cubs and historic Wrigley Field, according to a person involved in the process.

The price tag is said to be near or above $1 billion.

Several bidders offering current owner Tribune Co. between $700 million and $900 million for all the properties have been excluded from the second round, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of nondisclosure agreements governing all talk about the bids.

A Tribune spokeswoman said the baseball team would not have any comment on the status of the sale, which also includes the team’s minority stake in a Chicago regional sports TV network.

Besides Internet billionaire Mark Cuban, others in the second round include the Ricketts family, which founded the brokerage that is now TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.; and a group led by Sports Acquisition Holding Corp. that includes former baseball home run king Henry Aaron and former Republican Congressman Jack Kemp. The last group is believed to be teaming with another bidder who submitted an offer in the initial round.

All three of the reported potential buyers refused Thursday to comment publicly. However, the person involved in the bidding provided to The Associated Press an outline of the conditions for the second round.

John Canning, the chairman of private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners LLC, which had been treated as the front-runner, did not make the initial cut, according to the person, who said Tribune is not letting any bidder eliminated after the first round submit a new higher proposal in the second round.

Canning is a minority owner of the Milwaukee Brewers and close friends with Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig. Any successful sale must be approved by three-quarters of the owners of other major league teams.

The bidders still in the running will get more detailed financial information on the Cubs, Wrigley and the sports network before they are required to submit a new proposal.

A person familiar with the Ricketts family bid confirmed that it is one of those invited back.

The Cubs — lovable losers who haven’t won a World Series in 100 years — are expected to fetch more than the record $660 million paid for the Boston Red Sox, their ballpark and 80 percent of their TV network in 2002 by a group headed by Florida commodities trader John Henry.

Tribune paid $20.5 million for the team in 1981. It is now seeking to sell the team and its stadium to help pay off the $8.2 billion cost of going private last year.

The value of Wrigley Field apparently has been harder to quantify, since it may require hundreds of millions of dollars in renovations.

The state-run Illinois Sports Facilities Authority offered about $400 million to buy Wrigley using taxable bonds that would be repaid with lease revenue. Those talks broke down in May over how the ISFA would finance renovations and improvements at Wrigley, the second-oldest ballpark in the country behind Boston’s Fenway Park.

Former Gov. Jim Thompson, who is chairman of ISFA, said his agency estimated the cost of improving the stadium structure and the player and fan amenities between $400 million and $600 million.

Tribune has said it is willing to sell the properties individually.

A recent announcement by Starbuck’s stated that 600 stores would be closed this year.

The list of the first 50 was released and only 1 in the Dallas area was mentioned:

No. 10877 - Illinois & Westmoreland
3403 W Illinois Ave.
Dallas, Texas

A spokesman for Dallas-based AT&T Inc., the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in the U.S., said there was a global problem with Apple Inc.’s iTunes software that prevented the phones from being fully activated in-store, as had been planned.

Instead, employees are telling buyers to go home and perform the last step by connecting their phones to their own computers,

Many companies are unable to pay their staff additional wages, but they have found a way to give them a perk — have a 4-day work week. By working 10 hours on 4 days, the employee still gets their hours but saves a day of commuting.

A couple Dallas companies have recently made this transition including Dallas Concilio and Automotive Service Association.

A companion poll on WFAA, is showing that 95% of viewers would prefer a 4-day work week.

Because of the higher gas prices, people are cutting back in other ways including:

•We are eating out 35 percent less.

•Entertainment budgets are cut by 31 percent.

•Grocery bills are down 27 percent.

•21 percent are cutting out vacations.

For the time being, the days of decadence and debauchery are gone — frugal and thrifty are now haute couture.

Billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens is putting his clout behind renewable energy sources like wind power.

The legendary entrepreneur and philanthropist on Tuesday unveiled a new energy plan he says will decrease the United States‘ dependency on foreign oil by more than one-third and help shift American energy production toward renewable natural resources.

“The Pickens Plan” calls for investing in domestic renewable resources such as wind, and switching from oil to natural gas as a transportation fuel.

In a news conference outlining his proposal, Pickens said his impetus for the plan is the country’s dangerous reliance on foreign oil. He stated that the U.S.’s dependency upon imported oil is killing our economy and is the single biggest problem facing America today. He went on to say that wind is clean, renewable power with a stable supply.

Pickens’ company, Mesa Power, recently announced a $2 billion investment as the first step in a multibillion-dollar plan to build the world’s largest wind farm in Pampa, Texas.

Pickens said Tuesday that if the United States takes advantage of the so-called “wind corridor,” stretching from the Canadian border to West Texas, energy from wind turbines built there could supply 20 percent or more of the nation’s power. He suggested the project could be funded by private investors.

Power from thousands of wind turbines that would line the corridor could be distributed throughout the country via electric power transmission lines and could fuel power plants in large population hubs.

Fueling these plants with wind power would then free up the natural gas historically used to power them, and would mean that natural gas could replace foreign oil as fuel for motor vehicles, he said.

Using natural gas for transportation needs could replace one-third of the United States’ imported oil and would save more than $230 billion a year.

Pickens stated that we, as a country, have to do something different as we cannot continue to pay $600 billion a year for oil.

His energy plan could be implemented within 10 years if both Congress and the White House treat the current energy situation as a “national emergency and take immediate action,” he predicted.

Pickens, a lifelong Republican, says he is not advising either presidential candidate, but is prepared to work with the next president.

The Web site for the plan urges people to sign up and help spread the word.

Quicksilver Resources Inc. said Monday it will pay $1.31 billion for rights to north Texas land that may hold more than 1 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas.

The acquisitions, from various private parties including Chief Resources LLC, Hillwood Oil & Gas LP and Collins and Young LLC, will give Fort Worth-based Quicksilver access to Barnett shale in northern Tarrant and southern Denton counties that is producing 45 million cubic feet per day.

The cash part of the deal draws on a $700 million, 30-month second-lien loan facility, operating cash flow and Quicksilver’s existing credit facility. The value of the stock part of the deal will be based on the volume weighted-average price for the 15 consecutive trading days immediately prior to the three trading days just before closing. The transaction is scheduled to close Aug. 8.

Quicksilver estimates the properties contain more than 1 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas resources, net to the company. That volume includes about 350 billion cubic feet of proved reserves.

Quicksilver estimates its production will grow at a three-year compound annual rate of about 50 percent, after adjusting for the November 2007 divestment of operations in Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky.