BNET Daily Dispatch: Qwest, McDonald's, Circuit City, and CrackBerry
- A federal jury convicted Joseph Nacchio, former CEO of Qwest Communications, yesterday on charges of insider trading for selling $52 million of the company's shares in 2001. Nacchio sold the shares based on private warnings that the company would miss its sales targets. He faces ten years in prison.
- McDonald's said today its selling 1,600 restaurants in Latin America and the Caribbean for $700 million to a franchisee organization. The company said the sale is part of plan to refocus resources on markets with bigger growth opportunities. McDonald's said it'd use the proceeds for dividends and share repurchases.
- In attempts to boost lagging music sales, Circuit City will offer Napster's music-download service at its Web site. Shipments of CDs to retailers fell 13 percent last year, and retail music sales in the U.S. dropped by 6.2 percent.
- BlackBerry users finally got an explanation yesterday for their sudden lack of service that crippled communication for many across the country. BlackBerry maker R.I.M. said the installation of an insufficiently tested piece of software set off a chain reaction that led to the breakdown in service. R.I.M said systems are now operating normally, but it still has not completed an analysis of the breakdown, and has not developed ways to prevent the problem from reoccurring.