Starbucks e-coupon expires early
There’s no such thing as a free iced coffee at Starbucks – at least not anymore.
The world’s largest specialty coffee chain has pulled the plug on what was supposed to be a nearly five-week promotion after an e-mail coupon spread farther and wider than the company anticipated.
The offer began Aug. 23 with an e-mail offering a free Starbucks iced coffee from noon to 9 p.m. through Sept. 30. It was sent to “a limited group” of employees in the Southeast with instructions that they share it with friends and family.
The company ended the promotion Tuesday night, issuing a statement saying the e-mail had been “redistributed beyond the original intent and modified beyond Starbucks’ control.”
“Workers at Chile’s La Escondida mine – responsible for about 8 percent of world copper output – on Thursday voted to end their 25-day strike, a labor union official reported.
Francisco Aedo said 1,607 workers voted to accept a new 40-month contract offered by the company, Minera La Escondida. Another 121 voted to continue to strike and one worker voided his vote.
The strike at the world’s largest privately owned copper mine roiled world markets for the metal, often setting off buying and selling waves.
“Several high-ranking Microsoft Corp. executives Thursday received millions of dollars in stock awards as part of a compensation program the company rejiggered several years ago.
Three years ago, as its share price stagnated, making stock options less attractive, Microsoft switched from offering stock options to stock grants.
The executives reaped the first rewards Thursday as the first of three chunks of stock awarded under the program vested, making it available to executives, company spokesman Lou Gellos said.
Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft division that includes Microsoft’s Office business software, received stock worth $7.5 million at current prices. Kevin Johnson, co-president of the group that includes the Windows operating system, received stock worth $6 million. Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell received shares worth $1.2 million at current prices.
“NASA on Thursday gave a multibillion-dollar contract to build a manned lunar spaceship to Lockheed Martin Corp., the aerospace leader that usually builds unmanned rockets.
The nation’s space agency plans to use the Orion crew exploration vehicle to replace the space shuttle fleet, take astronauts to the moon and perhaps to Mars. NASA estimated the cost at $7.5 billion through 2019.
The only other competitor for the contract was a team made up of Northrop Grumman Corp. and Boeing Co.