In brief: Mark Cuban’s insider trading lawsuit will move forward
DALLAS – Mark Cuban said he learned he was being sued for insider trading when he turned on CNBC one day “and I was the headline.”
The billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner told jurors in federal court Monday that the news made him “sick to my stomach.”
Cuban testified that he could have settled the case – he’s not likely to face more than $2 million to $3 million in fines and penalties if he loses – but he hired lawyers and fought back because “I did nothing wrong and I refuse to be bullied.”
Monday marked Cuban’s second day on the witness stand. The Securities and Exchange Commission is suing Cuban, claiming that he broke a confidentiality agreement when he unloaded his shares in a Canadian Internet company in 2004.
Cuban was called as a witness by the SEC. When he finished two days of testimony late Monday, his lawyers asked U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater to throw out the case.
The judge, who had dismissed the case in 2009 only to be overturned by an appeals court, denied Cuban’s motion, meaning that the case eventually will go to the jury of seven women and three men.
Dozens of Wendy’s sold to franchisee in Seattle
DUBLIN, Ohio – The Wendy’s Co. said Monday that it sold 24 of its restaurants in Seattle to a franchisee. The fast-food chain is seeking to reduce the number of locations it owns.
The move is part of a plan, announced in July, to sell 425 of its restaurants to franchisees. It wants to complete the sales by the middle of next year. Wendy’s has about 1,350 company-owned restaurants.
Fast-food companies often own a small percentage of their restaurants, which helps them keep their operating costs down and gives them a more stable stream of income from royalty fees and rent, rather than sales at restaurants.
Wendy’s is selling the Seattle restaurants to Cedar Enterprises Inc., its third-largest franchisee, which already operates 170 locations.
Former Google CEO sharing tips in book
Now that he is no longer Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt evidently has a lot more time to write books.
After releasing a technology treatise about his vision of the future in an Internet-connected world, Schmidt will share some of the management tips that he learned while running Google Inc. for a decade.
The upcoming book will be called “No Adult Supervision Required: How To Build Successful 21st Century Companies.” Schmidt is co-writing it with Jonathan Rosenberg, one of Schmidt’s top lieutenants at Google.
Publisher Business Plus, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, announced Monday that it plans to release the book in fall 2014.