LOS ANGELES – Coffee giant Starbucks Coffee Corporation announced today that it has finalized its purchase from Vivendi Universal of subsidiary Hollywood movie studio Universal Pictures.
Howard Shultz, Chairman and Chief of Global Strategies for Starbucks, announced the acquisition today at a board of directors meeting in Seattle. Starbucks bought Universal Studios and its lucrative film library outright for 5.2 billion dollars, nearly half a billion dollars less than the French company spent to purchase Uni from Matsushita in 1995. The move gives Vivendi a much need cash infusion that will help the beliegured company avoid bankrupcy.
Running of the studio will be supervised for Starbucks by current Executive VP of Merchandizing, Marketing and Brand Development, Melvin Hartwang, who will be promoted to Overseer of Studio Operations and will report directly to Shultz. Shultz said that Starbucks has been contemplating a move into the entertaiment industry for some time.
“We have the ability to make more films, cheaper,” Shultz said.
Changes in studio operations, which were outlined in an investor’s packet, include closing down Universal’s offices in Los Angeles, firing all household, clerical and writing staffs and moving essential employees to “film production plantations” in South America, East Africa and Indonesia.
“We can merge our current network of coffee producing real estate with our new film production business quite seamlessly. The cost for us to shoot in Costa Rica versus Los Angeles or even Canada will be pennies on the dollar. Using digital technology, we will be able to pump the footage Stateside for ‘roasting’, and then serve it up fresh at theaters or new micro-theaters in the stores,” Overseer Hartwang said.
When questioned about the ethics of runaway production, Hartwang said only, “Starbucks is very proud of its role as a good corporate citizen and we will continue to act in strict accordance with our own Corporate Social Responsibility Statement.”
Vivendi Chief Jean-Rene Fourtou, who replaced former head Jean-Marie Messier this summer, said after signing the the papers on his yacht anchored off the Grand Cayman Island, “good riddence.”
Starbucks trades on Nasdaq as SUBX and closed up 2 1/2 at 23.25 Friday.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment