Folks who know me know that I have a fascination with corporate names, history, and logos. I guess I can trace this back to the time NBC abandoned its peacock for the infamous N. Anyway, today’s news brings a bunch of little things regarding corporate names and such:
- We all grew up getting our copying done at Kinkos, which recently has been FedEx Kinkos. Alas, they are dropping the Kinkos part of the name (which pisses off the original founder), to become FedEx Office. Folks may remember that UPS did this a while back to Mail Boxes Etc, which became the UPS Store.
- However, the renaming bullet was dodged by Cost Plus, which rejected an unsolicited takeover attempt by Pier 1. I remember the old days of Pier 1, when it was cheap schlocky imported stuff. Since it has become expensive schlocky imported stuff, I won’t go in there.
- We’re also seeing well-known names in banking disappear. No, I’m not talking Countrywide–they’ve been a dead bank walking for a while. I’m referring to Pomona First Federal (PFF), founded in 1892, which has had too much exposure in the construction loan sector. They are being taken over by California National Bank, pending approval.
- One name that won’t disappear is Budweiser, even if InBev ends up purchasing them. The LA Times had a fascinating article on the history of AB in Southern California, including loads of stuff of Busch Gardens. The attempted acquisition, of course, is big news in St. Louis
