STARBUCKS POSTS FIRST-EVER LOSS

Factoring in one-time costs related to closing stores, Starbucks Corp. reported a third-quarter loss of $6.7 million, or 1 cent per share, its first loss since it went public 16 years ago.

The Seattle coffee giant (Nasdaq: SBUX) reported revenue of $2.6 billion, up from $2.4 billion a year earlier. Starbucks said the latest quarter was affected by costs associated with its decision to close 600 U.S. stores, which was announced earlier this month. One-time costs impacted the latest quarter by 17 cents per share.

On Tuesday, Starbucks said it would reduce its employee head count by 1,000 and drastically scale back its Australian operations. Coupled with the decision to close 600 U.S. stores, Starbucks said it expects a pretax benefit of up to $210 million in fiscal 2009, or up to 18 cents per share.

(Source)