COFFEE AND FAMILY

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Coffee, not unsurprisingly, is BIG bucks.  ‘Yesterday, the global snack giant Mondelez announced plans to combine its coffee business with D.E. Master Blenders to create a company with annual revenue of more than $7 billion.’   LINK  That is a LOT of coffee beans…

The article linked above goes on:  ‘The combined company, which will be called Jacobs Douwe Egberts, would be the largest “pure play” coffee company in the world.   Its biggest individual brands, including Jacobs, Carte Noire, and Pilão, are most popular outside of North America.

Overall, the company’s retail value would lag behind Nestle’s, according to data compiled by Euromonitor. But it would be the largest in terms of retail volume. The chart below shows the market shares of current major brand owners, compared with the proposed combined company, Jacobs Douwe Egberts:

 Mondelez will get $5 billion of cash up front and maintain a 49% stake in the combined business.  The other side of the deal is essentially a family business: the billionaire Reimann siblings.  To me that makes a LOT of sense, great coffee should be kept in the family…

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COFFEE AND POLITICS

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THE CHECK IS IN THE MAIL ?

MEANWHILE, BACK IN CANADA…

BIG PRESSURE  TO ENDORSE

KASPAROV CAMPAIGN!

This is a developing scandal.  Few details have been made public except for the excerpts by the Canadian Chess Federation (CFC)  president Vlad Drkulec , posted on a popular Canadian chess-message board (link below).  

I am not sure what to make of it, and until further details are made known all I can say is that there are those loyal to the Kasparov FIDE campaign who are NOT even elected officials in the chess community who insist NOT JUST Canada’s vote to be given to Kasparov, BUT that Canada ENDORSE the Kasparov campaign, IMMEDIATELY, regardless  of how the CFC traditionally chooses who to support in FIDE.  Apparently the term ”coup d’etat” has already been used in connection with these efforts.

HERE ARE SOME EXCERPTS BY THE PRESIDENT:

”I am at this point very annoyed. I am more annoyed than I have been at any time that I have been CFC president. I am probably not going to comment further on this until … a Skype meeting with the USCF president. It seems to me that my only option will be to put the whole process of talking to the Garry Kasparov campaign on hold…I have no intention of playing nice while our constitution is twisted in a knot. My best weapon is to open the windows and doors let the light in and let everyone see what is going on.”—CFC president Vlad Drkulec yesterday (10:29 am) LINK

‘’It appears at the moment that some individuals do not want to rely on their power of persuasion and argument and want to force through significant changes in the way the CFC operates simply to ensure that Canada’s endorsement and not just a vote is delivered to their candidate. I do not want to believe that Garry Kasparov is behind this. If he is behind it, it is a grave mistake.”

CFC president Vlad Drkulec trying to remain calm while under great pressure.  ‘There seems to be a move afoot to stage a coup d’etat in order to attempt to change the constitution…” on how Canada traditionally decides its FIDE vote

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MORE ON THIS AS EVENTS DEVELOP.