Steven E.F. Brown reports in the San Francisco Business Times that Peet’s Coffee & Tea Co plans to buy Diedrich Coffee Inc. for $213M in cash and stock. Emeryville-based Peet’s (NASDAQ: PEET) will pay $26 per share for Irvine-based Diedrich, which has about 150 workers. Diedrich’s brands include Gloria Jean’s, Black Tiger and Flor de Apanas.
Read More »The Boston Business Journal reports that CIT Group Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection Sunday after its board of directors approved of a plan to reorganize the giant small business lender. The plan has also been approved by CIT’s creditors. “The decision to proceed with our plan of reorganization will allow CIT to continue to provide funding to our small business and middle market customers, two sectors that remain vitally important to the U.S. economy,” Chief Executive Jeffrey Peek said in a statement.
Read More »Tim Mclaughlin reports in the Boston Business Journal that Citizens Bank could get a new owner if the European Commission forces parent company Royal Bank of Scotland to sell more assets than what executives originally anticipated.
RBS, whose shares fell as much as 13 percent Monday, said in a brief statement that negotiations with the EC will include some divestments not initially contemplated.
David Farkas reports in Chain Leader that to revitalize its brand, Quiznos is rolling out a new decor package and upgraded training. To get franchisees to buy in, the restaurant chain is loaning them the money. Quiznos is tempting franchisees with a low-interest rate on small loans to be used for remodeling the restaurants.
Read More »Don Sniegowski reports at BlueMauMau that President Barack Obama announced plans Wednesday afternoon to shift some of Wall Street’s bailout funds over to community banks in order to spur lending to small businesses, which has slowed to a trickle. With SBA administrator Karen Mills and Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner flanking him, President Obama made several announcements to boost small business.
Read More »Henry Pulizzi of the New York Times rports that President Barack Obama unveiled initiatives to help small businesses, saying the U.S. has “a long way to go” to ensure that credit flows to an area of the economy hit hard by the recession.
“There is still too little credit flowing to our small businesses. There are still too many entrepreneurs who can’t get the loan they need to open their doors and start hiring,” Obama said in a speech at Landover, Md.-based Metropolitan Archives, a family-owned firm that stores and delivers paper files for large companies.
Read More »Citizens Bank said Tuesday it was opening its first branch inside a Dunkin’ Brands store. The new operation will be at 815 South Main St. in Bellingham. The branch will offer window teller service as well as private offices for loan applications and other specialized services. The branch will be open seven days a week, while an ATM is also available in the eatery.
Read More »Stephen Bernard reports at Kansas City.com that activist investor Carl Icahn is offering struggling lender CIT Group a $6 billion lifeline. In a letter Monday to CIT’s board of directors, Icahn said he would give the company the loan to replace a debt restructuring plan CIT has asked bondholders to approve.
Read More »Peter Goodman reports at The New York Times that many small and midsize American businesses are still struggling to secure bank loans, impeding their expansion plans and constraining overall economic growth, even as the country tentatively rises from its recessionary depths. Most banks expect their lending standards to remain tighter than the levels of the last decade until at least the middle of 2010, according to a survey of senior loan officers conducted by the Federal Reserve Board.
Read More »It may take months or even years before markets return to normal, yet a number of key tax measures that have helped small firms survive the downturn are set to expire, touching off a scramble on Capitol Hill to get them extended. The franchise industry, one of the biggest beneficiaries, has taken the lead in the lobbying effort as the clock winds down on several key tax incentives.
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