Europe has always represented a major strategic opportunity to achieve our goal of creating and building an enduring global brand.

Mandelson was later overheard at a drinks reception saying: "Why should I have this guy running down the country? Who the hell is he? How the hell are [Starbucks] doing?"
An official comment from Starbucks read that "It is a difficult economic situation in the US and around the world. Two years later the original Starbucks management decided to focus on Peet's Coffee & Tea and sold its Starbucks retail unit to Schultz and Il Giornale for $3. Ownership of the Seattle SuperSonics
Schultz is the former owner of the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics.

Howard Mark Schultz (born July 19 1953) is an American businessman and writer. He is best known as the chairman and CEO of Starbucks and a former owner of the Seattle SuperSonics. Schultz co-founded Maveron an investment group in 1998 with Dan Levitan.