Filed under: Company News , Economy , Citigroup On February 8, 1950 , Frank McNamara and Ralph Schneider finished their dinner at Major’s Cabin Grill in New York and did something that had never been done: they paid with a charge card. The two men, along with colleague Matty Simmons, were the creators of Diners Club, the first charge card that could be used at multiple restaurants and retailers. Like their later competitor American Express ( AXP ), Diners Club balances had to be paid in full at the end of the month, but the ease of credit purchases opened the door to innovations like credit cards. Now, almost 60 years later, the trailblazer for America’s credit industry is leaving the country . Citigroup ( C ), which bought Diners Club in 1981, has announced plans to sell the company’s North American operations to the Bank of Montreal ( BMO ). It has already gotten rid of worldwide operations, having sold them to Discover ( DFS ) last year. Continue reading Diners Club leaves Citi and the country, finding a new home in Canada Diners Club leaves Citi and the country, finding a new home in Canada originally appeared on DailyFinance on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Diners Club leaves Citi and the country, finding a new home in Canada

Filed under: Technology , Media , Google , Microsoft , Apple , Baidu, Inc.(ADR) It didn’t even take a full weekend for the former head of Google ’s (NASDAQ: GOOG ) China operation, Kai-fu Lee to find a new home. The recently departed executive announced on Sunday that he was planning to start his own business in the coming week , funding technology startups in China. So, he’ll be playing in the same market in the same country – he’ll just be doing it from the inside. According to a report by Reuters , Lee told the world of this development via Twitter (his account has been verified by the micro-blogging service provider), though his bio still reads, “I am the President of Google Greater China. I used to work at Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT ), Silicon Graphics (NASDAQ: SGI ), and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ). I have written several Chinese books.” His plan is to focus on helping young Chinese entrepreneurs secure angel financing to get their companies off the ground. Two of Lee’s former employers — Google and Apple — started out with support from angel funds. Continue reading Ex-Googler Lee lands in China Ex-Googler Lee lands in China originally appeared on DailyFinance on Mon, 07 Sep 2009 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read | Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Ex-Googler Lee lands in China