Dick's Sporting Goods is eating massive losses after their Foot Locker acquisition turned into a total disaster six months in. The company dropped numbers showing they'll take between 500 and 750 million in charges while closing dead stores and dumping inventory that nobody wants. Chairman Ed Stack basically admitted they bought a dumpster fire and need to clean house immediately.
The sneaker chain is projected to tank with comparable sales dropping somewhere in the mid-to-high single digits this quarter. Mall traffic keeps dying, and shopping habits have changed enough that Foot Locker can't keep up anymore. The whole mess stems from Dick's paying 2.4 billion for a retailer that apparently needed way more fixing than anyone realized...
The Ambriola Company yanked a bunch of pecorino Romano products nationwide after listeria contamination turned into a serious problem. The FDA slapped it with a Class I recall, which means this stuff could actually kill people or mess them up permanently. Boar's Head grated cheese and wedges, plus all the Locatelli grated varieties, got pulled, along with some chicken Caesar salads and wraps that used the sketchy cheese.
Nobody has gotten sick yet, but the agency wants anyone holding these products to trash them immediately or bring them back for refunds. Listeria hits pregnant women, babies, elderly people, and anyone with a weak immune system the hardest, so the company is taking zero chances with distribution.
iHeartRadio just told the entire industry they're keeping AI slop off their stations after the company president dropped a memo banning synthetic voices and algorithm-generated tracks. Tom Poleman made it clear the network wants actual humans making content, and on-air talent confirmed they won't touch AI music or listeners moving forward.
The company ran surveys showing most Americans still want real people behind their entertainment, and they're sketching out about where the tech is headed. Other platforms are messing around with digital personalities and bot-generated content, but iHeart is going the opposite direction.
Whether this becomes permanent policy or just temporary posturing remains unclear, but the message hits different...
Campbell's is getting dragged after a former security guy leaked audio of some VP basically trashing everything the company stands for. Robert Garza recorded his boss, Martin Bally, during a salary chat, and the dude apparently went off about how their soup is garbage made for broke people. Bally allegedly called the ingredients bioengineered meat from a 3D printer, admitted to showing up high on edibles, and then started ripping into Indian coworkers with racial slurs.
Garza took the recording to his supervisor in January, and the company canned him three weeks later despite getting solid performance reviews. His lawyer is calling it straight-up retaliation for whistleblowing. Campbell's put out a statement saying the comments don't...
Trump apparently strong-armed Larry Ellison into bringing back Brett Ratner for another Rush Hour movie, and the whole thing has people losing their minds. Ratner got canceled after facing a bunch of sexual misconduct allegations back when MeToo was blowing up, but the former president went to bat for him directly with the Paramount Skydance shareholder. Jackie Chan mentioned talks about a sequel a few years back, but nothing moved until Trump got involved.
Ratner denied everything when the allegations dropped and even tried suing someone for defamation before backing off. The director is apparently tight with Trump and has been working on a Melania documentary for Amazon MGM. Neither Chan nor Chris Tucker has said anything about the...
Authorities grabbed a 29-year-old Afghan guy named Rahmanullah Lakanwal after two National Guard members got shot near the White House. The dude came to America back when the military pulled out of Afghanistan, and he later got asylum approved under Trump. Both victims are in critical condition, with one taking a headshot while the other got hit right after. Military personnel fired back, and Lakanwal went down before getting arrested.
Investigators are treating this as a targeted attack near 17th and I Streets, and they say nobody else was involved. The whole thing has people questioning how he passed vetting since his asylum went through earlier this year. Feds are digging through his digital footprint, travel records, and personal...
The Mets brought in Kenneth David from Kasowitz to run their legal department after James Denniston held the spot. David spent over 17 years grinding at the litigation firm and previously worked at Simpson Thacher plus Fried Frank before that. He takes over everything from business operations to baseball-side legal work and reports straight to the executive team.
David grew up blocks away from Citi Field and actually worked at Shea Stadium as a kid, which makes this kind of a full-circle moment for the guy. Lew Sherr thinks his background across different sectors will help the team handle complicated situations as they keep expanding. Denniston started as legal counsel back in 2008 and became co-general counsel later on, though his...
Gibson Dunn just snagged Robbie Sinclair from A&O Shearman to beef up their London employment litigation game. The dude spent 11 years there and made partner back in 2019, handling messy employment cases, whistleblower stuff, and regulatory headaches for finance clients. He teams up with James Cox, who launched their employment shop after jumping ship from Ashurst.
The hire fits their plan to stack more litigators after killing it on the deals side. They want someone who can handle boardroom drama, investigations, and High Court battles when things get spicy. Sinclair brings expertise in business protection cases and corporate transaction support, which helps their M&A and private equity clients when deals go sideways or disputes pop...
Littleton Chambers just tapped Adam Solomon KC to run the show after Gavin Mansfield KC bounced to become a High Court judge. Solomon got called to the Bar back in 1998, made silk in 2018, and spent time on the Bar Standards Board, plus worked with a legal-access charity before landing this gig. The guy handles everything from employment beefs to commercial disputes, and he repped the winning side when Egon Zehnder v Tillman hit the Supreme Court.
Solomon says he wants to keep the chamber's reputation solid while growing the practice over his seven-year term. Chambers director Clare Bello thinks his leadership vibe will work great for the team. The set has been stacking international arbitration talent lately, with Louis Flannery KC...
