Consumer Affairs & Relations

Sandton, South Africa – Grant Pattison, CEO of Massmart Holdings Ltd., a South African retailer that operates as a subsidiary of Wal-Mart, is resigning. Pattison, 43, will be replaced by Massmart COO Guy Hayward, 48, on June 1, as part of what the company terms a smooth succession plan.

Pattison joined Massmart in 1998 and was appointed CEO in 2007. He was CEO when Massmart sold a majority stake to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Hayward has served with Massmart since 2000, receiving appointments as CFO in 2001 and COO in 2012.

Lakewood, Colo. – Natural Grocers Inc. has opened two new stores in Las Cruces, N.M. and Gresham, Ore. The locations are respectively Natural Grocers’ fifth store in New Mexico and seventh store in Oregon.

Natural Grocers stores offer features including a credentialed nutritional health coach, local products, free recyclable boxes and demos, speakers and seminars.

Pleasanton, Calif. -- Safeway Inc. has received a request for additional information and documents from the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") in connection with the FTC's review of the previously announced agreement and plan of merger among Safeway and Albertson’s.

New York -- Patrick B. Dorsey, general counsel and secretary of Tiffany and Co. since 1985, has decided to retire from the company effective May 22. On that date, Leigh M. Harlan will be promoted to the position of senior VP, secretary and general counsel with responsibility for the company’s worldwide legal affairs.

Harlan will report to Michael J. Kowalski, Tiffany’s chairman and CEO. Harlan, 37, came to Tiffany in 2012 from Cravath, Swaine & Moore, a New York City law firm, where she practiced corporate, transactional and finance law.

Guy Hayward was named CEO of Massmart to fill a position currently held by Grant Pattison, the executive who engineered the sale of a majority stake of the South African retailer to Walmart.

Pattison joined Massmart in 1998 and served as CEO since 2007, helping to engineer the sale of a majority stake in the company to Walmart several years ago. Assuming the CEO role on June 1 will be current COO Guy Hayward. He joined Massmart in 2000 as CFO and was later named COO and also played a key role in the Walmart and Massmart transaction.

San Francisco -- Zynga Inc. named former Best Buy executive David Lee as CFO, effective April 14, as the online games company and creator of “Farmville” seeks to return to growth. He will replace current CFO Mark Vranesh who has decided to leave the company.

Lee was previously the senior VP of corporate finance, treasury, mergers and acquisitions and corporate strategy at Best Buy.

Salt Lake City -- Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne has relinquished his role as chairman of the company. In other moves, co-president Stormy Simon was named president of the online discount retailer.

Byrne will continue to serve as CEO, while current executive vice chairman Jonathan Johnson assumes the chairman responsibilities Byrnes has held since 2006.

San Jose, Calif. – EBay Inc. has reached an agreement with investor Carl Icahn, ending the proxy contest before the company’s upcoming annual meeting of stockholders. Icahn is withdrawing both his proposal to separate the company’s PayPal business and his two nominees to the company’s board of directors.

It looks like the battle between eBay and investor Carl Icahn is over — for the time being. Icahn is withdrawing his proposal to separate the company’s PayPal business as well as his two nominees to the company’s board of directors.

eBay reportedly reached an agreement with Icahn, ending the proxy contest before the upcoming annual meeting of stockholders.

The Wild Oats brand will begin appearing on Walmart shelves this month as the retailer plans to offer 100 low priced organic dry grocery items.