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04 Aug 2011 10:13

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Biz: How the cookie crumbles: Kraft to split food business in two

  • before About 18 months ago, Kraft (an already big global brand it its own right) bought an equally big global brand — Cadbury, a brand which sells much more than chocolate eggs outside of the U.S. It was a buyout that Cadbury long rebuffed, by the way. Because, really, who wants to mix Velveeta and Trident gum, anyway?
  • now The company, seeing that it had two distinctly different product portfolios with different strengths — groceries (like Maxwell House and Kraft cheeses) and snacks (like Oreo cookies and, well, Cadbury), decided to take these two halves and pull them apart, like an Oreo filled with sweet, sugary financial success. source
  • » Part of a larger trend: A number of other companies have followed this splitting-the-company path lately — including Motorola, Sara Lee and Fortune, Inc. And just you wait. In a year or two, they’re all gonna want to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Jan 2011 11:03

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Culture: Macaulay Culkin home alone, without Mila Kunis. Sigh

  • Eight years is a long time for a couple to be together when they haven’t married. Especially in Hollywood, where it seems like couples break up every week. So it’s understandable that one might feel bad for Macaulay Culkin, who has been dating Mila Kunis (the girl who started out as a co-star of “That ’70s Show” and the voice of the frumpy girl on “Family Guy,” and ended up a probable Oscar winner for “Black Swan”) for eight years. Poor Mac. Dude has had an ultra-weird life, but the normalcy of dating Mila Kunis probably helped. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Dec 2010 10:02

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Biz, Tech: Speaking of buyouts, AOL has some crazy plans for itself

  • first AOL, which has been working on its content lately, is thinking of splitting up its content business from its legacy (and still-profitable) dial-up Internet business.
  • then The company is considering selling off its dial-up business to a company more suited to it, like Earthlink or United Online. (No, they don’t get TMZ, guys.)
  • finallyAOL would then merge the rest of its parts with Yahoo!, creating a massive content-generating echo chamber the likes of which the world has never seen. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Apr 2010 21:50

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Music: Saturday Mixtape: What comes next after the split?

  • OK, they aren’t exactly hip. Doesn’t matter. The Barenaked Ladies are a fascinating band to watch right now. After lead singer Steven Page (who sang, among other hits, “Brian Wilson”) was arrested on drug possession charges in 2008, the band quickly started falling apart, which led to Page’s departure last year. The band continued on as a four-piece and just released a new album, “All in Good Time.” So what comes next for them, and other bands in their spot? We examine.

  • 1. Well, this doesn’t sound like the cheeky band that did rapid-fire hit “One Week” 12 years ago. The Barenaked Ladies sound like weary warriors, trying to get past the one truly controversial moment of their career. It’s traditional pop-rock, but not without bite.
  • 2. The Pixies: Greatest band of the last 25 years probably, right? Well, yeah, but one thing evaded them while they were together – an inescapable hit. Fortunately for Kim Deal, she had another highly-regarded band with her sister Kelley Deal, The Breeders, and they had a major hit right away with “Cannonball.” Frank Black probably wished he had a hit of this caliber after the break-up.
  • 3. Maybe Gorillaz is a better fit for Damon Albarn. After a falling out with Graham Coxon, Blur’s lead singer had to take the lead on the band’s “Think Tank,” an album which notably got a 9.0 on Pitchfork, a C+ in Entertainment Weekly and 2 stars on Allmusic. Albarn hasn’t made another Blur album since, with or without Coxon.
  • 4. At the Drive-in were looking like the great punk heroes of the last decade when, all of a sudden, they split. The love child from this divorce? The Mars Volta, a band which took the crazy, interesting parts of the band’s sound and held on tight. Oh, and Sparta. But nobody remembers Sparta.
  • 5. Jay Farrar’s career didn’t exactly live up to that of Jeff Tweedy’s, but the breakup of Uncle Tupelo sixteen years ago was a huge blow to the alt-country scene. Wilco’s first album, “A.M.,” was a lot of going through the motions, but Farrar’s band Son Volt hit it out of the park with “Trace,” a true classic which they never replicated. Wilco is now a stadium act.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Feb 2009 20:36

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Offbeat: OK, we know it’s Valentine’s Day. Here’s a number to warm your heart.

  • 1.5 million people split up on this über-depressing holiday source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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