Good Week: Kate Spade – Competitor Coach announced it will purchase the luxury handbag brand in a deal estimated at $2.4B. Ms. Spade is gonna need a bigger bag.
Bad Week: American Food Icons – Bumble Bee Foods pled guilty to one count of price fixing on canned tuna sold in the U.S. and will pay a criminal fine of $25M. Parent company Pinnacle Foods was forced to recall Aunt Jemima frozen waffles, pancakes and French toast over fears of listeria contamination. Finally, poultry giant Perdue also issued a recall after a handful of consumers found shards of blue plastic in the company’s chicken-sausage links, no doubt boosting both their nutritional value and flavor. It takes a tough man to make a chicken tender.
Worse Week: Barclays – Taking a page from the Wells Fargo playbook, the venerable investment bank will pay in excess of $97M to settle civil charges that it overbilled customers of its asset management division $50M.
