Stupidity is contagious. It gets us all from time to time. Even respectable companies can catch it. Let's look at five dumb financial events this week that may make your head spin.
1. It's a Mini-Me Wal-Mart
The world's leading retailer is playing small ball. Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) is testing a neighborhood grocery-store concept called Marketplace. At 15,000 square feet, these stores are less than a seventh the size of the namesake department superstores.
Marketplace will stock only supermarket staples. Sure, Wal-Mart has the economies of scale to deliver low prices, even in a cutthroat margin business like grocery stores. However, Wal-Mart hasn't usually responded too well when it grows out of its comfort zone. It's been a dud on everything from high-end fashions to social networking to mail-order DVD rentals.
The only thing zanier would be if Wal-Mart transformed its adjacent garden centers into some crazy sports-themed eyesore. What's that? Wal-Mart is turning 1,700 of its outdoor garden centers into "Game Time Headquarters"? Selling home-team regalia and cookout dining staples? This concept will run only through September, so wake me up when Wal-Mart transforms its superstores into creepy haunted houses for October. Can you say "brand disintegration"?
2. Good to the last price drop
Top officers at Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) won't be getting a pay raise this year, according to published reports. You think? The struggling java giant is coming off two consecutive quarters of declines in comps and earnings. It's in the process of closing 600 stores. The once-celebrated lowballer has topped Wall Street's quarterly profit estimates just twice over the past two years.
In short, Starbucks is more crimson than Clover these days. Frozen bigwig salaries sound nice, but that's just a nice start.
3. Mumbai's the word
Shares of Sify (Nasdaq: SIFY) soared 18% on Wednesday. Did India's corporate telco specialist strike oil under its Mumbai headquarters? Did it land global exclusive iPhone selling rights? No. All it did was announce that it will team up with Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) to offer Google Apps to its clients through its Web portal.
Google Apps is cool. Sify can also be cool, when it isn't losing money. However, there isn't exactly a velvet rope separating Google Apps and any interested company or person from Google's cloud computing. The press release isn't clear whether Sify will be getting gobs of rupees for every Google Apps user it generates, but that's pretty much the only reason why Sify should move up sharply on what's otherwise non-news news.
4. My TiVo really gets thee
TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO) struck a deal with Entertainment Weekly that gives lets subscribers record the shows that the entertainment magazine's staff say will be the best stuff on the air.
Cool. Unfortunately, TiVo last year rolled out the "My TiVo Gets Me" marketing slogan, which pitched the DVR's ability to study the owner's viewing habits and suggest custom-tailored picks. Now it wants everyone to settle for what some highbrow Paris Hilton trackers think we'll like? We'll pass. Er, I mean, I'll pass. You can come to your own conclusion, because I want to live up to Fool.com's new "My Fool Gets Me" mantra.
5. Teaching old-school media some new-media blunders
It wasn't a banner week for media companies. Over the weekend, the Los Angeles Times' website published prewritten articles on all of the leading Democratic vice presidential candidates being tapped as running mates for Barack Obama.
Then it was Bloomberg's turn to bobble when it went online with its updated obituary for Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) Steve Jobs.
Mistakes happen. I know that better than anyone else. Thankfully, the same tools that make immediate publishing possible on the Web make it just as easy to correct mistakes. Now where can I find a story about Jobs being tapped as VP?
Let's beat the Dumb Drum:
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