BrandSnark: Good Week/Bad Week for the Big Brands

Good Week: Microsoft – The popularity of the company’s Azure cloud platform drove an increase in quarterly profits and an uptick in stock values.

Bad Week: Sierra Nevada – The brewer issued a product recall in 36 states after it was determined that certain bottles coming out of its North Carolina brewery contained a flaw that could cause a small piece of glass to fall off (and into the beer) upon opening. Turning lemons into lemonale, Sierra Nevada unveiled its new tagline: “A Bloody Good Beer.”

Worse Week: Yahoo… Again – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this week announced it will investigate why Yahoo waited weeks before informing the public about the 2013 and 2014 data breaches that compromised approximately 1.5 billion users. The probe casts a dark cloud over Verizon’s planned $4.8B deal to acquire the former internet leviathan.