"We believe that the Crazy Eddie name remains a strong consumer franchise," he added.

Housenbold has a successful track record of building online consumer franchises by combining commerce and community.

And he worries that the volatility of corporate banking will distract investors from the more stable and profitable consumer franchise.

I think Apple has a great consumer franchise that you can't kill, even though they've tried to kill it.

The key with him is how much he's moving them down that cost curve without blowing away the consumer franchise.

I think some of the consumer franchises - and New York magazine has a strong consumer franchise - each have different ways to tap into that.

By late 1998, the company realized that while it had strong consumer franchises, it was working under an untenable debt burden.

Q. Isn't there a certain cynicism about turning Europe into a consumer franchise with its own bar code?

It's a business he knows, there are real cost-cutting opportunities, there's a consumer franchise in Asia and it's accretive.

He said at a breakfast news conference yesterday at the "21" Club in Manhattan that the firm "saw an opportunity to build a consumer franchise."