Yum! Brands to Appeal Jury Finding against Taco Bell.Business EditorsLOUISVILLE, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 4, 2003 Yum! Brands Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM) or Yum! is a Fortune 500 corporation, that operates or licenses A&W (excluding Canada), KFC, Long John Silver's, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell restaurants worldwide. Based in Louisville, Kentucky, it is the world's largest quick-service (a.k.a. , Inc. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :YUM) today announced it plans to appeal a U.S. District Court verdict against Taco Bell Taco Bell Corp., a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., is a Mexican-style quick service restaurant chain based in Irvine, California, United States. The restaurant has locations primarily in the United States and Canada, but also operates outlets in several other markets. Corp. in which the jury found for plaintiffs who claimed to have created the Taco Bell "chihuahua" character formerly used in Taco Bell's advertisements. In Wrench wrench or spanner Tool, usually operated by hand, for tightening bolts and nuts. A wrench basically consists of a lever with a notch at one or both ends for gripping the bolt or nut so that it can be twisted by a pull at right angles to the axes of the lever v. Taco Bell Corp., the jury awarded $30,174,000 to plaintiffs Joseph Shields and Thomas Rinks. The case was filed in 1998. It is the Company's expectation that plaintiffs might file for pre-judgement interest, which if awarded, could range between $5-10 million. "Taco Bell continues to strongly believe that the chihuahua character was created by the Chiat Day Advertising Agency, not the plaintiffs, and we intend to appeal the jury's verdict," said Laurie Gannon, Taco Bell spokesperson. In view of this jury verdict, the Company will take a special charge of $.06 per share (excluding interest) in the second quarter ending June 16, 2003. As disclosed in the Company's first quarter earnings release issued on April 23, 2003, the Company's second quarter and full-year EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) A PostScript file format used to transfer a graphic image between applications and platforms. EPS files contain PostScript code as well as an optional preview image in TIFF, WMF, PICT or EPSI, the latter being an ASCII-only format. guidance assumed no material impact from special items. If unsuccessful upon appeal, the Company intends to seek reimbursement from its insurance carriers and Taco Bell's former advertising agency. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion