Oil prices tumble to 3-month low

Retail

Starbucks $2 deal goes nationwide

Looking to bring more value-seeking consumers through its doors for a late-afternoon caffeine fix, Starbucks said it will now offer its morning customers any iced grande beverage for $2 after 2 p.m.

Customers must present a receipt from their morning Starbucks visit.

The promotion, which runs until Sept. 2, previously was offered only in Seattle, Chicago and Miami.

The chain has seen traffic drop as gas prices rise and consumer spending falters.

Energy

Oil prices tumble to 3-month low

Oil prices dropped to a three-month low Monday, briefly tumbling below $120 a barrel in another huge sell-off after Tropical Storm Edouard seemed less likely to disrupt oil and natural-gas output in the Gulf of Mexico.

Crude’s steep drop — prices fell more than $5 at one point during the day — dragged down other commodities from corn to copper and mimicked the big nose dives of the past three weeks, adding to growing beliefs that the oil bubble is at least temporarily deflating.

Light, sweet crude for September delivery fell $3.69, or 2.9 percent, to settle at $121.41 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was crude’s lowest settlement price since May 5.

Retail

Steve & Barry’s gets $163M bid from fund

Steve & Barry’s, the bankrupt discount-clothing retailer, received a so-called stalking-horse bid of $163 million from Bay Harbour Management.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper in Manhattan, who has yet to approve procedures to sell the assets, said Monday he will probably have a formal order to approve them today.

“I have a lot of objections,” Gropper said at the outset of a hearing.

Bay Harbour has invested in retailers including Barney’s New York and the former Aladdin Casino.

The fund created a unit, BH S&B Holdings, that will buy most of Steve & Barry’s assets and continue to operate the chain.

Corporate governance

Brocade won’t sue attorney, law firm

Brocade Communications Systems agreed not to sue Silicon Valley attorney Lawrence Sonsini, who advised the company on stock-option grants, or his law firm, in part because the firm paid the company $9.5 million.

Brocade, whose executives faced criminal, civil and shareholder lawsuits for backdating employee stock grants, said it was “inappropriate” to pursue claims against Sonsini or Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati for many reasons, including the firm’s one-time “contribution” of $9.5 million, according to an Aug. 2 court document.

In June, Brocade agreed to pay $160 million to resolve securities-fraud claims by shareholders over stock-options backdating practices. In May 2007, the company dropped Wilson Sonsini as its law firm in related stock-option litigation after a judge noted a potential conflict of interest.

Sonsini, chairman of Wilson Sonsini, sat on Brocade’s board from 1999 to 2005.

Privacy

Stolen laptops had data on 150,000

About 150,000 people nationwide have been affected by the theft of laptops with personal information about current and former employees of Anheuser-Busch.

A letter sent by the brewer to the Florida Attorney General’s Office said the laptops, stolen in June, contained personal information on nearly 87,500 residents.

The missing data included Social Security numbers, addresses, dates of birth and other information, according to the Florida letter.

Attorneys general in Florida, New Hampshire, Virginia, Missouri, Texas and California have confirmed either they or their residents were notified.

Compiled from Bloomberg News and The Associated Press