The @49ers new football home will be called Levi's Stadium. CEO Jed York calling it the "Field of Jeans."

— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) May 8, 2013

In the insanely crazy years of the California Gold Rush from 1849 to 1855, hundreds of thousands of people poured into San Francisco and the surrounding areas. Levi Strauss was one of them, but he didn’t come for gold. He came to establish his family dry-goods business and help clothe and outfit all those 49ers looking to strike it rich.

Strauss, of course, had hit on a formula that would make him and his family exceedingly wealthy. Now a whole different kind of 49ers will be benefiting from his legacy.

Word came Wednesday that the denim powerhouse Levi Strauss & Co. would shell out $220.3 million over 20 years to put its name on the new Santa Clara stadium that will be home to the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers starting next year. That price is one of the heftiest in pro sports and should help offset the $1.2 billion it is taking to build what will now be called Levi’s Stadium.Continue reading...

Will American soldiers have their nipples exposed? Will the neon make them easier targets? Those were just two of our questions when we heard the news that American Apparel—thanks to its "Made in the USA" mantra—had been chosen to supply jackets for the U.S. Army.

But in this case, American Apparel is not American Apparel because it's American Apparel.Continue reading...

Is that a Mobi in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? This is a question that frisky individuals may have been asking today if Apple’s head honchos had gone a different way.

The iPhone nearly had a bunch of different names, many of which were revealed by the company’s former advertising head honcho Ken Segall at an event at the University of Arizona Tuesday.

According to 9to5Mac.com, some of the names considered for the iPhone include Mobi (as a shortened version of mobile), Telepod (as a combo of telephone and the then smash hit on the market iPod), Tripod (since the initial device would serve the functions of being a combo phone, iPod, and Internet connection), and iPad.

Continue reading...

Japanese technology giant Softbank's $20 billion takeover of Sprint is already proving to be an uphill battle. Sprint reported that it lost 423,000 U.S. subscribers from July 1 to Sept. 30, while only gaining 19,000 non-contract subscribers, the smallest number in over three years. That churn contributed to Sprint losing $767 million in the quarter, compared to a $301 million loss for the same period a year ago.

The downward spiral for Sprint was even more obvious in comparison to its two main competitors, Verizon Wireless, which added 1.8 million subscribers, and AT&T, which added 228,000 subscribers. In addition, Verizon Wireless and AT&T saw a spike in iPhone 5 sales while Sprint's activation of iPhones in Q3 was flat. Ironically, the 2012 American Customer Satisfaction Index ranked Sprint first among all national carriers in customer satisfaction and most improved, across all 47 U.S. industries, during the last four years.

In an attempt to shore up its flagging business, Sprint is acquiring PCS broadband spectrum and customers in parts of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio from smaller wireless competitor U.S. Cellular for $480 million. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse stated that "Acquiring this spectrum will significantly increase Sprint's network capacity and improve the customer experience in several important Midwest markets including Chicago and St. Louis." Even though U.S. Cellular is exiting the Chicago market, its brand name will remain on the city's U.S. Cellular Field stadium and it will maintain its corporate headquarters in the market.

Being acquired by Softbank means Sprint, meanwhile, will officially shed the Nextel part of its corporate name.Continue reading...

When Jay-Z and Beyonce named their new daughter Blue Ivy back in January, most people said, “What the heck?’ Boston-based entrepreneur Veronica Alexandra, however, was saying something else.

The 32-year-old’s response was more like “Uh-oh.” After all, her wedding and event planning business, which has offices in Florida and Southern California, happened to have the very same name.

So when the music superstars went to trademark the name for their daughter, Alexandra did the same. And now, the Boston Herald reports, she’s won trademark protection for Blue Ivy. 

“I definitely needed to protect what it is I’ve been living on,” Alexandra told the Herald. “Now it’s time to create the partnerships and business avenues I’m planning on doing, period.”Continue reading...

What's in a name? Kraft Foods is about to find out, after announcing today that Mondelēz International is the moniker of the corporate global snack-foods unit that it will spin off by the end of this year, as announced last August.

"Mondelay," you say? Nay, nay! No need to dust off your high school French. The new name — pronounced "Mohn-dah-LEEZ" — is a Kraft-coined word that, the company explained in a press release, is intended to evoke the idea of "delicious world."

"Monde" derives from the Latin (and French) word for "world," the company explained, and "dēlez" is a "fanciful expression of 'delicious.'" And, of course, "International" captures "the global nature of the business."

Even though it won't be consumer-facing, pronunciation will be a challenge ("mon-de-lay," "mon-de-less," or "mon-de-leez"?) for the new name which was, as it turns out, employee-sourced.

Last fall, Kraft invited staffers around the world to suggest names and received suggestions from more than 1,000 employees. The winner was inspired by separate suggestions from two employees, one in North America and one in Europe.Continue reading...

The Hobbit Pub in England’s Southampton serves up a slew of drinks named after various J.R.R. Tolkien characters and creations. And that didn't sit well with the producers of the film of the same name, the final installment of Peter Jackson's Tolkien series that's due for release in December.

The Guardian reported on Wednesday that the pub was given until the end of May to rebrand and drop the Hobbit moniker in a legal warning issued by the Saul Zaentz Company, producer of the film. But a mighty defender has successfully defended the place. No, it’s not Gandalf. It’s actor Stephen Fry, the British wit who is currently shooting the film of the same name.Continue reading...

Everybody is hurting for money these days and nobody is saying no to any potential revenue streams. So why should Virginia?

The governor of the great commonwealth is looking to sell naming rights to streets, bridges, and intersections, Voice of America reports. And he’s not just thinking that corporations will buy in. Wealthy civilians might as well get into the act, too. What would make a nicer birthday present than to give your sweetheart a local intersection?  

Governor Bob McDonnell wants to use the money from naming rights to “help the cash-strapped Virginia transportation budget,” VOA notes. But what is the "your name here" response to budget woes doing for the Virginia brand?Continue reading...