800
That’s how many small-format stores Best Buy plans to operate by 2015, more than double its current 367, as the electronics chain focuses on mobile phones, tablets and services to help reverse declining sales. Best Buy, which is closing some of its big-box locations, will target strip malls where rents are cheaper and there’s strong foot traffic, according to Shawn Score, the company’s mobility chief. The move pits the retailer against RadioShack as well as Verizon and AT&T.
Hear here
“The IRS sent 104 million messages to whistle-blowers around the world that there is now a safe and secure way to report tax fraud.”
Lawyers for Bradley Birkenfeld, the former UBS banker who told the Internal Revenue Service how the Swiss bank helped thousands of Americans evade taxes, on his $104 million whistle-blower award. Birkenfeld informed authorities how UBS bankers wooed rich Americans, managed $20 billion of their assets and helped them cheat the IRS. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy in 2008 after reporting the bank’s conduct to the Justice Department and other government agencies. He was released from prison Aug. 1.
Heads up
Apple CEO Tim Cook introduces the redesigned iPhone on Wednesday morning at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center, the latest upgrade for a product that generates about 70 percent of the Cupertino company’s profits. The new gizmo will probably have a bigger screen and thinner body, as well as new mapping software and access to speedier next-generation data networks. Apple may sell as many as 10 million iPhones by the end of the month, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster
Coffee with DistilINFO's Morning Updates...
Sign up for DistilINFO e-Newsletters.