• Amazon Primed To Raise Membership Fee
    Well, there seem to be a few subsets of the Consumer Republic hopeful over Amazon's revelation yesterday that it was thinking about raising prices on its Prime service by $20 to $40. One would be investors, who have grown weary of negative-to-meager results despite the online retailer's phenomenal-by-any-measure-except their-own increase in net sales - 20% worldwide for the fourth quarter of 2013.
  • It's All About Fertilizing The Android Ecosystem
    It was, is and shall remain all about the ecosystem, Google CEO Larry Page indicated in his blog post yesterday announcing an agreement to sell the Motorola Mobility business to Lenovo for $2.91 million.
  • Abercrombie's Jeffries Stripped Of Chairman's Raiments
    Michael S. Jeffries may have been the kewlist suit in retailing way back in the aughts but if there's one thing in fashion that's constant, it is that it flip-flops. Jeffries yesterday was stripped of his chairman's title at Abercrombie & Fitch as the retailer announced yet another quarter of declining sales and staved off a demand by an activist investor that Jeffries be jettisoned entirely. He remains CEO.
  • Coming Soon To Theaters Everywhere: Shorter Trailers
    The National Association of Theatre Owners issued new guidelines to movie marketers yesterday that will shorten the length of the average trailer to two minutes - "chopping 30 seconds from the current norm," reports "Variety"'s Dave McNary - and restrict their screening to 150 days before the release of the film (120 days for other materials such as posters).
  • P&G Finds Itself In A Hairy Situation
    Different accounts put it different ways but it all comes down to Procter & Gamble's profits being nicked by the Movember movement and hipsterism.
  • Barra Will Put Pedal To The Mettle Of GM's Recovery
    Mary Barra, who succeeded Dan Akerson as General Motors CEO last week, met for two days with the automaker's top 300 executives from around the world and then sat down with a dozen or so beat reporters for a discussion of her agenda at Detroit headquarters yesterday. The big news is that there wasn't any, it appears.
  • The Yankees Make A Winning Pitch For A Pitcher!
    Most grammarians urge that the exclamation point be used sparingly, if at all. But when it comes to the Steinbrenner clan's stewardship of the New York Yankee's brand, it has been an unabashed element of its style, particularly after a questionable season.
  • Amazon Denies It's Considering Online Pay TV Service
    In the digital wake of Verizon buying "the remains of" Intel Media and its OnCue CloudTV platform yesterday with the intent of launching "next-generation video services," the "Wall Street Journal" reports that Amazon is considering a new online pay-TV service and has talked to at least three major media companies about licensing their channels.
  • Lessons From The Hollywood Trade Shows
    It's trade show season in Hollywood, which is to say that a lot of egos are being pumped and deflated, libations are freely flowing, and awards are being handed out like salted peanuts - all in the interests of acting the part more than bumping sales, although that can happen, too - say, if the flick happens to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.
  • Consumers Like What They Like
    New products may indeed be the rocket fuel for growth and expansion for an enterprise but when it comes to consumption, Americans tend to be stick-in-the-mud traditionalists who tend to choose the tried-and-true over innovation, a few stories last week tell us.
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