4 ms·
>Safeway Inc. spent about $350 million to build clinics in more than 800 of its supermarkets to offer blood tests by startup Theranos Inc. >The $350 million pr
by marcusgarvey 11y ago
>Safeway Inc. spent about $350 million to build clinics in more than 800 of its supermarkets to offer blood tests by startup Theranos Inc.
>The $350 million price tag was equivalent to more than half of Safeway’s net income of $596.5 million in 2012. Safeway had revenue of $44.21 billion. Safeway also invested more than $10 million in Theranos, one former Safeway executive said.
>Two of the former Safeway executives said they told Mr. Burd, Safeway’s chief executive, about the varying employee test results.
>The former executives said Mr. Burd told them he had been reassured by Ms. Holmes. Mr. Burd continued to support the partnership with Theranos, according to the former Safeway executives.
If he hadn't retired already, he should be fired for incompetence.
- danieltillett 11y agoIt certainly will be interesting how he justifies this in front of the shareholder plaintiff lawyers.
- anon8418 11y agoBut but but Rumsfeld and Kissinger told me it was a sure thing!
- jessaustin 11y agoYeah those guys are famous for their foresight.
- kumarm 11y agoMr. Burd declined to comment, citing a nondisclosure agreement. He retired in May 2013.
- sk5t 11y agoWell, Holmes _did_ reassure Burd. We cannot rule out the possibility that she is an exceptionally deft reassurer. In seriousness, Safeway gets durable capital improvements to their stores for their $350mm, still useful without Project T-Rex.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- jessaustin 11y agoWe cannot rule out the possibility that she is an exceptionally deft reassurer. So that's what they're calling it these days...
- beachstartup 11y agoyeah, everybody's thinking it, but nobody's going to cross that line (especially on the record) without some incontrovertible evidence which is unlikely to say the least.
- sk5t 11y agoI strongly disagree... there is no very good explanation for the current situation other than sloppy decision-making and a dirty snowball of social proof. The awkward, inexperienced captain at the helm is however a puzzle.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- pen2l 11y ago> >The former executives said Mr. Burd told them he had been reassured by Ms. Holmes. Mr. Burd continued to support the partnership with Theranos, according to the former Safeway executives. How does she do it? No, seriously. I mean, sometimes on my projects I get a really shitty result in the beginning... and I have to explain to my boss that it'll get better -- and I often fail (even though I'm really sure that the project will eventually be okay). How can Holmes reassure people of something that's clearly failing? What tricks is she using?