Oakland-based Blue Bottle coffee, the high-end roaster and cafe operator launched by a "slightly disaffected freelance musician" in a teeny potting shed in 2002, has sold a majority stake to the Swiss-based multinational conglomerate Nestle SA for upwards of $425 million.

Who'da thunk it but apparently the best way to launch a new business is not to suggest that you're going to wipe out mom-and-pop shops - and steal their generic name and beloved vermin-hunting mascot while you're at it. Unless you're looking for publicity-generating backlash, that is.

Apple executives once again took to the stage yesterday to unveil its new devices and operating systems in the new Steve Jobs Theater on the Apple campus. They unveiled, as expected, both the iPhone 8 and the fancier, pricier iPhone X, Apple TV 4K, new operating systems and an Apple Watch 3 that gives surfers the ability to take or make a call while waiting for the perfect wave on Redondo Beach.

John Foraker, the CEO who transformed Annie Withey's feisty mac & cheese startup into a line of organic products General Mills was willing to shell out $820 million for three years ago, announced yesterday that he was joining actress Jennifer Garner to nurture Once Upon a Farm, a two-year-old company that markets a line of cold-pressed organic baby foods and applesauces. Foraker will be CEO; Garner will serve as chief brand officer.

You just knew something would come along to shock moviegoers out of their summer lethargy and a malevolent Stephen King clown proved to be just the right agent.

Equifax, which not only stores extremely sensitive financial data for 820 million consumers, 91 million businesses and 7,100 employers worldwide but also markets credit-monitoring and identity-theft protection products, disclosed yesterday that hackers had gained access to the records of about 143 million U.S. consumers from the middle of May through the end of July.

In a white paper that rips into Procter & Gamble's "track record of underperformance" - including selling brands instead of fixing them - Trian Fund Management yesterday called for the reorganization of the company into three "largely autonomous" companies and urged shareholders to elect Nelson Peltz, its CEO and founding partner, to its 12-member board.

Just as its products have gotten much more complex than they were a generational ago, so also has Lego's organizational structure. The family-controlled company based in Billund, Denmark, said yesterday that it is eliminating 8% of its workforce - about 1,400 jobs - around the world even as it announced that revenue had dropped 5% so far this year.

That five-minute air-taxi ride from Times Square to JFK Airport you've fantasized about while inching along the Grand Central Pkwy has become $90 million closer to reality. Lilium, the Munich, Germany-based aviation startup that conducted a successful test flight with a two-seat "flying car" in April, this morning announced that it has closed a $90 million series B round of funding. "Li

In much the way that interest compounds, the depth and breadth of the Well Fargo scandal continues to fester. Yesterday the bank disclosed that a third-party review uncovered 1.4 million additional retail-banking accounts that had been opened without customers' consent or knowledge.