In 1985, the last time a Super Bowl was played in Northern California, San Francisco defeated Miami in Super Bowl XIX. In 2013, the San Francisco Bay Area defeated Miami to win the rights to host the NFL's historic Super Bowl 50, which will be played in 2016. Read the whole story...

Fast-casual restaurants are using alcoholic beverages as a way to differentiate their brands. "We're seeing a fair amount of it within fast casual; traditional limited service, not so much, although Starbucks obviously has been testing it," says David Henkes, VP of Chicago-based Technomic Inc., adding that alcohol can account for 3%-7% of a fast casual's sales. "For fast casual, it is a lot more in their wheelhouse than in traditional fast food." Read the whole story...

A new multi-year alliance between the league and Microsoft, valued at $400 million, will give the company expanded "official" status, provide teams, players and fans access to next-generation technology and move the NFL closer to a future where, according to both sides, innovations would include the ability for coaches and players to view replays on sidelines while providing fans with an "enhanced" game experience. Read the whole story...

General Motors will close its New York Treasurers office and move the operation to Detroit by the middle of next year. GM has traditionally had its finance operating from its building in the southeast corner of Central Park. In fact, for many decades GM's chairman, starting with Alfred P. Sloan, was based in the Big Apple, rather than Detroit. Since the 1950s, New York is where high potential employees on the fast track went to win promotions to big jobs inside or even outside GM. No more. Read the whole story...

Twitter plans to turn the tweet stream into a more efficient marketing channel with a new Twitter Card that lets people sign up for advertiser offers or promotions inside tweets. Twitter Cards, also known as expanded tweets, are a 1-year-old feature that bring rich media from partners to tweets so that when people click to expand a tweet, they can view and interact with photos, videos, content snippets, and product information without needing to leave Twitter. Read the whole story...

Yum! Brands Inc. plans to double Taco Bell's domestic annual sales to $14 billion by 2021, per analysts who attended investor meetings with the company. Louisville, Ky.-based Yum, which also operates and franchises KFC and Pizza Hut, told attendees that system growth would include an increase in average unit volumes from $1.3 million in fiscal 2012 to about $1.8 million by the end of the decade. The plan is also to grow unit count from 5,700 to 8,000 locations. Read the whole story...