Consumer Affairs & Relations

Vancouver – E-commerce company Elastic Path Software Inc. has secured $5.88 million in equity investments led by BDC Venture Capital IT Fund, with participation from Yaletown Venture Partners and individual investors. The company will use the funds to support development for its patent-pending enterprise commerce products.

Goodlettsville, Tenn. – Dollar General Corp. is upping the ante in its $9.1 billion bid to purchase Family Dollar Inc. by making a hostile takeover offer to Family Dollar stockholders of $80 per share. This offer beats the $74.50 per share, $8.5 billion offer Family Dollar has accepted from Dollar Tree Inc, and is a 32% premium over the closing price of $60.66 for Family Dollar stock on Sept. 9.
 

Stein Mart plans to open six new stores this fall just in time for Christmas. The store openings are part of the company’s 2014 store expansion plan, which includes nine new locations, strategically selected in key growth markets, and seven relocations.

The openings will bring the company's total nationwide store count to more than 270.

Since Family Dollar’s board of directors unanimously rejected Dollar General’s second and sweetened tender offer from Sept. 2, Dollar General has decided to make the tender offer directly to the company’s shareholders.

The company’s all-cash offer of $80 per share beats Dollar Tree’s offer of $74.50 per share cash/stock offer originally made July 28. The Family Dollar board has rejected both Dollar General’s offers on the basis of antitrust regulatory considerations.

Starboard Value CEO and chief investment officer Jeffrey Smith has resigned from the Office Depot board, effective immediately. The company’s nominating and governance committee plans to start a search for a replacement.

This year, Nestlé Toll House is celebrating its Real Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsel’s 75th birthday.

Nestlé credits Ruth Wakefield Toll House with inventing chocolate chips. Wakefield ran the Toll House restaurant in Whitman, Massachusetts. She broke a bar of Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate into tiny pieces and added them to dough expecting to create a chocolate cookie. Instead, the semi-sweet pieces held their shape and softened to a creamy texture. Wakefield's "Toll House Crunch Cookie" recipe was published in a Boston newspaper.

Atlanta – The attorneys general of California, Connecticut and Illinois are reportedly leading a multi-state investigation into the recent data breach at The Home Depot Inc. According to Reuters, the attorneys general of New York and Iowa will also take part in the effort.  

Arlington, Va. – Cooperation among all public- and private-sector stakeholders in the retail industry is needed to ensure cyber security in the face of high-profile retail hacking attacks like the one recently uncovered at Home Depot, according to the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA). Sandy Kennedy, president of RILA, released a public statement on the importance of continuing to improve the security of debit and credit cards.

Plano, Texas – J.C. Penney Company Inc. is raising capital by selling $350 million worth of senior notes due in 2019. The proceeds will mostly be used by pay off fees and expenses related to previous senior notes offering coming due in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Chesapeake, Va. -- Dollar Tree Inc. and Family Dollar Stores Inc. announced, as expected, they have received a second request for information from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in connection with Dollar Tree's pending $8.5 billion deal to acquire Family Dollar.