Tune-thirsty set may see Starbucks as its cup of MP3
Starbucks Corp., seeking to expand its entertainment business at a time of music-industry troubles, plans to move beyond compact- disc sales and CD burning to allow customers to transfer songs onto MP3 portable music players.
“A lot of our customers are asking for device fill-up, and going forward we’ll do that,” Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks Entertainment, said in an interview at the Midem music-industry conference in Cannes, France.
Starbucks, the largest U.S. coffee-shop chain, hasn’t yet set a date for moving into MP3 downloads and is still talking to various companies about the technology, said Lombard, whose company has more than 10,000 retail outlets globally. Apple Computer Inc. is the global leader in such technology with its iTunes download system and iPod portable player.
The coffee-shop chain’s move into MP3 sales follows its co-production of Ray Charles’ “Genius Loves Company” album. It announced last month that it also plans to promote movies and offer DVDs and soundtracks at its 5,500 U.S. and Canada stores.
COLORADO SPRINGS
Gazette editor steps down after four years
Sharon L. Peters, editor and vice president of the Colorado Springs Gazette, resigned Monday after four years with the newspaper.
Peters, who returned to daily journalism in 2001 after seven years as a media consultant, will depart Friday. The search for a replacement will begin immediately, publisher Robert Burdick said in a statement.
Peters, 56, previously worked as a reporter and editor at papers in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Cincinnati; and Lexington, Ky. She also worked as an editor at USA Today during the 1980s.
ONTARIO, Canada
BlackBerrys’ fate in peril after ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a petition from BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. for a rehearing of its patent-infringement case.
The Canadian maker of the popular wireless e-mail device has been locked in litigation against NTP Inc., a McLean, Va.- based patent-holding company that holds the licenses for the technology.
RIM may face a court-ordered shutdown of most of its 4 million BlackBerrys in the U.S. if it cannot settle its case with NTP.
OKLAHOMA CITY
Kerr-McGee selling gulf oil, gas properties
Kerr-McGee Corp. announced a plan to sell its oil and natural-gas properties on the Gulf of Mexico shelf for an estimated $1.34 billion to Houston-based W&T Offshore Inc.
W&T Offshore will assume responsibility for abandonment liabilities, which Kerr-McGee had recorded at approximately $135 million Dec. 31, the Oklahoma City-based oil and gas company said in a statement released Monday night.
The divested properties are in the Gulf of Mexico in waters that are typically less than 1,000 feet deep, spanning from near Corpus Christi, Texas, on the west to Mobile, Ala., on the east, the company said.
BOULDER
City appoints airport manager
The city of Boulder named Tim Head the new manager of Boulder Municipal Airport.
Head has served as an airport manager for the Air Force for the last nine years, including a stint at Sheppard Air Force Base/Wichita Falls Municipal Airport in Texas.
DENVER
Qwest quizzed on federal eavesdropping
Denver-based Qwest is one of 20 phone, cable and Internet companies being asked by the head of the House Judiciary Committee if it allowed the federal government to eavesdrop on customer communications.
Congressman John Conyers, D-Mich., the committee’s ranking member, sent a letter Friday to key telecommunications players in the U.S., including the heads of AT&T, Verizon, Google, Yahoo and Comcast Corp.
Qwest declined to talk about the letter, which was addressed to chief executive Richard Notebaert. Government officials in December said the National Security Agency had gotten cooperation from the country’s largest telecommunications companies to monitor international telephone and Internet traffic.
WICHITA
Former Qwest board member Haines dies
Former Qwest board member Jordan Haines, a banker and philanthropist, died Friday in Wichita of complications from cancer. He was 78.
Longtime friend Philip An schutz, founder of the Denver- based telephone company, endowed a professorship at the University of Kansas School of Business in Haines’ honor, the Wichita Eagle reported.
“The world will not be nearly as much fun without him,” An schutz said through a spokesman, calling Haines “one of the best business minds in the country, an absolutely unique individual and a valued friend.”
DENVER
Investment fraud alleged in complaint
Fred Joseph, the Colorado securities commissioner, on Friday filed a complaint in Denver District Court against Equity Edge, a Colorado Springs-based investment company accused of bilking $9 million from at least 57 investors from 2003 to 2005.
The complaint names, among others, Mark Lane, chief executive of Equity Edge, and Christopher Brenner, chief financial officer. According to the complaint, Equity Edge told investors it would purchase real estate and real-estate back investments. Instead, the company used investor money to purchase used mobile homes or notes used to finance the purchase of used mobile homes.
Investors will likely recover up to $7.2 million of the $9 million invested, Joseph said.
LITTLETON
Ascent Solar plans $16.5 million IPO
Ascent Solar Technologies, formed last year by Littleton- based ITN Energy Systems Inc., plans to raise $16.5 million through an initial stock sale.
Ascent intends to commercialize technology used on space satellites that converts sunlight into electricity. It plans to offer 3 million units priced between $5 and $6 apiece.
The company has applied to be listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market and Pacific Exchange.
PORTLAND, Ore.
Nike CEO resigns under pressure
William Perez resigned as the first outsider to run Nike Inc. after founder and chairman Philip Knight decided Perez didn’t have the experience for the job and was hurting the company’s performance.
Perez, a former S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. executive who became Nike chief executive a year ago, couldn’t “get his arms around the business,” Knight said.
