Revenue for Starbucks increased 9% in the third quarter to $2.6 billion compared with $2.4 billion a year ago. That matched estimates on Wall Street. "While we recognize the near-term impact to our business from this transitional year, we also believe this is the right approach toward strengthening our business model and creating a healthy, solid foundation for fiscal 2009 and beyond," said Chief Executive Howard Schultz in a statement. "The store closures and organizational restructuring we announced this month resulted from rigorous evaluations of the entire business," he continued. "While this has led to difficult decisions that impact the lives of our partners, customers and the communities we serve, these were necessary actions to transform our business and allow us to focus on delivering significant improvement in our long-term financial performance." On July 1, Starbucks announced that it would close 600 company-operated stores in the U.S., resulting in the elimination of 1,000 jobs.