Blu-ray scores victory

(Fin24) - The International Consumer Electronics Show is turning out to be a celebration party for Blu-ray, the high-definition format that Sony Corp backed, and a wake for a rival movie disc technology pushed by Toshiba Corp.

Just two months ago, Sony CEO Howard Stringer said the fight between Blu-ray and Toshiba's HD-DVD was at a "stalemate", and expressed a wish to travel back in time to avert it.

The impasse was broken on Friday by Warner Bros Entertainment, the last major studio to put out movies in both formats. It announced it was ditching HD-DVD, and from May on, would only publish on Blu-ray and traditional DVD.

The decision puts a strong majority of the major studios, five versus two, in the Blu-ray camp.

Asked on Monday at the show if the Warner announcement decides the format war, Stringer said: "I never put up banners that say 'Mission Accomplished."' But his cheerful delivery belied his words.

By contrast, the main media event scheduled for the show by the North American HD-DVD Promotional Group, which includes Intel and Microsoft, was cancelled because of Warner's defection.
 

Read more at Fin24

Schultz back as Starbucks CEO

(Reuters) - Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O: Quote, Profile, Research) replaced CEO Jim Donald with founder and Chairman Howard Schultz and said it would slow an aggressive U.S. expansion in a shake-up that sent its battered shares up nearly 9 percent.

The move marks a return to daily management for Schultz, who is seen as the conscience of the company and warned executives a year ago that Starbucks was losing its way. Schultz, who was chief executive from 1987 to 2000, said Starbucks would close underperforming U.S. outlets and speed up international growth.

Investors have nearly halved the value of the world's biggest coffee chain to $13 billion in the last year in the midst of weakened U.S. sales growth.

"The most serious challenge we face is of our own doing," Schultz said on a conference call. "I am not going to use the economy, with you or our people, as an excuse."

 

Read more at Reuters