Originally Posted by Life_Platinum
I noted in Wine Spectator that Starwood has just taken the next step and sold off Taittinger Champagne and related companies, but has retained the 800 or so hotels. As some have predicted, this ultimately may increase the number of hotels carrying the Starwood Hotel banner and honoring the SPG program.
As noted above, Starwood Capital is the name of Barry Sternlicht's firm and is not to be confused with Starwood Hotels & Resorts. Sternlicht is the former CEO of Starwood Hotels (and vaguely claims to be the founder, though it was really a spin-off of ITT). However, Sternlicht has had an adversarial relationship with Starwood Hotels and recently announced he is builing his own hotel chain that will have nothing to do with Starwood Hotels:
http://www.starwoodcapital.com/asset...%20Release.pdf