London – Prince has angered the music industry and stirred up trouble among British retailers by giving away his new album with a tabloid newspaper this weekend. “Planet Earth” will be packaged with the Mail newspaper Sunday at a price of $2.80.
The giveaway has been roundly criticized as a major blow for an industry already facing rapidly declining CD sales. It has led Sony BMG U.K., Prince’s local label, to pull the plug on its own sales release of the CD in Britain.
The international sales launch for “Planet Earth” is Monday; the U.S. launch is July 24.
” ‘The Artist Formerly Known As Prince’ should know that with behavior like this, he will soon be the ‘Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores,”‘ said Paul Quirk, co-chairman of the Entertainment Retailers Association, referring to a period in the 1990s when the singer stopped using his name to protest a binding record deal.
Also fueling retailers’ ire is what they see as a traitorous move by one of their own. After initially harshly criticizing Prince and the deal, music and books retailer HMV, which doesn’t normally sell newspapers, decided to sell the Mail on Sunday in its 400-plus stores.
“Like it or not, selling the newspaper is the only way to make the Prince album available to our customers,” HMV said.
DENVER
ProLogis purchases portfolio of 114 sites
Denver-based ProLogis paid DP Industrial $1.8 billion for 114 properties.
The 24.7-million-square-foot portfolio includes distribution space in Reno and Las Vegas; eastern Pennsylvania; Chicago; and Tejon Ranch in Southern California. The deal includes 1.2 million square feet of construction in progress and 518 acres of developable land that can accommodate up to 9.3 million square feet of development.
The properties are being purchased by the newly formed ProLogis North American Properties Fund III.
DENVER
May at DIA another passenger record
Passenger traffic at Denver International Airport hit another record in May, with nearly 4.3 million passengers using the airport in the month.
It was a 2.9 percent increase from May 2006.
Passenger traffic for the year through May totaled 19.9 million, up 4.4 percent compared with last year.
In a separate report, national data for April from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics showed that DIA was the fifth-busiest airport in the nation in April based on the number of passengers boarding planes. For the year through April, DIA was the fourth- busiest airport.
DENVER
Foreclosures leap over same period last year
Public trustees in the seven- county metro area recorded 12,085 new foreclosures during the first half of the year, a 26.3 percent increase from the number recorded in the first six months of last year.
New foreclosures surged 48 percent in Adams County, 38 percent in Douglas County and 28 percent in Arapahoe County during the first half. In Weld County, new foreclosure filings through July 12 numbered 1,374, versus 1,050 during the same period a year ago.
DENVER
Franchisee gets funds to buy Hardee’s sites
Denver-based Biscuits and Burgers LLC, a franchisee of CKE Restaurants Inc., reached an $8.5 million deal for financing from GE Capital Solutions, Franchise Finance.
The financing includes $6.5 million to buy 19 Hardee’s locations in the Atlanta area and a $2 million development line of credit.
Biscuits and Burgers is a new entity formed by CKE franchisees Steve Rosenfield and Dewey Brown to buy the Atlanta- area Hardee’s locations.
GREELEY
Processor completes Swift & Co. purchase
A Brazilian firm has completed its acquisition of meatpacker Swift & Co., creating the world’s largest beef processor, the companies said Thursday.
JBS SA bought Swift from private equity firm HM Capital Partners LLC of Dallas and Vail-based Booth Creek Management Corp. in a cash deal worth about $1.5 billion, the companies said.
Greeley-based Swift, the third-largest U.S. processor of beef and pork, was a highly- sought-after company because so few meat-packaging plants have been put up for sale in the wake of U.S. industry consolidation.
DENVER
Ohioan wins auction of Weiss Ranch
Kyle Grote of Ohio paid $2.8 million for the 2,412-acre Weiss Ranch in Moffat.
Grote beat out 20 other registered bidders from several states at an auction conducted Thursday by the J.P. King Auction Co.
The ranch, operated by a single family for 46 years, was offered both as a whole and in parcels ranging from 236 acres to 524 acres. It has generous water rights, artesian wells and views of the San Juan and Sangre de Cristo mountain ranges.
DENVER
Underwriters snap up BioFuel Energy IPO
Ethanol plant developer Bio Fuel Energy Corp. said underwriters of its recently completed initial public offering have exercised their full over-allotment option, purchasing 787,500 additional shares of common stock at $10.50 a share, resulting in $7.7 million of additional proceeds to the company.
The offering generated net proceeds of $100.3 million. BioFuel retired $30 million of its subordinated debt with offering proceeds, leaving $20 million of subordinated debt outstanding.
LONDON
Casino that Anschutz bid for won’t be built
Britain’s new prime minister, Gordon Brown, has put the kabosh on plans for a Las Vegas- style supercasino in Great Britain, a project that Denver developer Philip Anschutz had at one time hoped to win.
Anschutz wanted to include the casino in his development plans for London’s Millennium Dome. The mogul’s entertainment company, AEG, lost its bid when a committee picked Manchester to be its home.
Brown has now relegated the project to the political dust bin, according to the Evening Standard newspaper.
