Conn’s to start building warehouse
Conn’s HomePlus will break ground Wednesday on a 656,658-square-foot warehouse and distribution center in north Houston. The facility, on about 36 acres northwest to the Hardy Toll Road, also will serve as office space, and a clearance and customer pickup center, the company said.
The LEED-certified building will be completed in the second quarter of 2019. It is being developed by Liberty Property Trust and brokerage firm Newmark Knight Frank.
The Woodlands-based Conn’s has 118 stores in 14 states and employs 660 people in the Houston area and almost 3,000 in Texas.
Apple, Google are 5G video providers
Verizon Communications announced deals making Apple and Google its first video providers for a 5G wireless service the company plans to launch in four cities later this year.
The home broadband service will debut in Houston, Los Angeles, and Sacramento, Calif., as well as the newly announced fourth city of Indianapolis, Verizon said in a statement. With the introduction, Verizon will provide 5G customers a free Apple TV box or free subscription to Google’s YouTube TV app for live television service, according to people familiar with the plan.
After shelving its own online TV effort, New York-based Verizon decided to partner with the two technology giants for video content, a first step toward eventually competing nationally against internet and pay TV providers such as AT&T and Comcast Corp. Using fifth-generation wireless technology, Verizon plans to beam online services to home receivers, delivering speeds that match or exceed landline connections.
Kroger to partner with Chinese group
Kroger Co. is going overseas for the first time: China, to be specific.
The grocery chain, which is the largest in the U.S. with nearly 2,800 locations, is partnering with e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. on a pilot test of an online store. It’s the latest digital effort by the brickand-mortar grocer, which has spent the last year trying to reassure investors that it can compete with giants like Amazon.com and Walmart as they pour billions into operations.
The intersection of retailing and technology is hot in China. Alibaba is on a mission to uproot traditional grocery and department stores with delivery services, high-tech stores and better tracking of inventory and customer data. JD.com, which already operates a chain of hightech supermarkets in Beijing, is teaming up with Walmart to combine their network of warehouses and cold storage to shorten delivery to customers. Tencent Holdings is investing in Carrefour’s China unit.
Kroger will sell products from its natural and organic private label, Simple Truth, for the test in China, which will be run through Alibaba’s Tmall Global platform.
MoviePass parent suffers larger loss
MoviePass parent Helios & Matheson Analytics posted a far larger loss last quarter, underscoring the beleaguered company’s challenges as it tries to turn around a money-losing subscription service.
The operating loss of $126.6 million in the quarter ended June 30 compared with a $2.74 million deficit in the year-earlier period, Helios & Matheson said in a filing Tuesday. It also said there is “substantial doubt” about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern through Aug. 14, 2019, without raising additional capital.
To reduce the widening losses, MoviePass ended its $9.95-amonth movie-a-day subscription service and replaced it with a plan that lets fans see three films a month for the same price.
Berkshire scoops up Apple, Teva shares
OMAHA, Neb. — Investor Warren Buffett's company added to its stakes in Apple and Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter while tweaking several of its other stock investments.
Berkshire held nearly 252 million Apple shares at the end of June, up from 239.57 million in March. The Teva investment was just disclosed earlier this year and has grown to 43.2 million shares from 40.5 million in the first quarter.