International Business

New York -- Wal-Mart Stores confirmed that it is investigating its operations in Mexico for possible violations of the U.S. law that prohibits bribery overseas. The acknowledgement came in response to a lengthy article by The New York Times on Saturday that alleged the giant discounter first learned of allegations of "widespread bribery" by its workers in the country in 2005 and that top executives subsequently covered them up. 

Walmart held another one of its sustainability milestone meetings this week and webcast the event live from the auditorium at its home office. By the time the hour-and-a-half event was over the senior executives who participated had delivered a clear and consistent message around the company’s wide-ranging sustainability efforts.

PURCHASE, N.Y. — PepsiCo has appointed Jim Wilkinson to lead the company's global communications team.

MINNEAPOLIS — Best Buy may be dealing with all of the negative attention surrounding the resignation of Brian Dunn, but "the show must go on," as they say, and the search has begun for a new CEO. The company has announced the members of its CEO search committee. The company said the committee will oversee a global search process to identify internal and external candidates, including current interim CEO Mike Mikan.

New York -- London has reclaimed the number one position as the most targeted market for international retailers, according to a survey by global property adviser CBRE. It was followed by Dubai, New York City, Moscow and Paris.

IBM’s decision to sell its Retail Store Solutions (RSS) business to Toshiba TEC was the most significant announcement in the retail point-of-sale industry in the last 10 years, according to industry analyst Greg Buzek, president, IHL Group, Franklin, Tenn. The acquisition establishes a new company in which Toshiba will initially own 80.1% and IBM 19.9% for the next three years to aid transition and after which time IBM will relinquish its stake.

Minneapolis -- Best Buy Co. has announced the members of its CEO search committee. The company said the committee will oversee a global search process to identify internal and external candidates, including current interim CEO Mike Mikan.

As part of Best Buy’s commitment to transparency, the company said the board will also publicly announce the selected search firm and will post the position on the company website. The final search firm selection will be announced in the next few weeks.

LONDON — The break-even forecast for the U.S. division of Tesco has been pushed back to early next year, the U.K. retail giant announced in its fiscal-year results.

Walmart and other retailers have fought unsuccessfully for years to level the e-commerce playing field in the United States by requiring Amazon.com and other online-only merchants to collect sales tax. Doing so would eliminate the Internet pure play retailers’ most significant competitive advantage, and for a glimpse of just how significant that would be, look no further than Canada.

Much was made this week of the nomination of Google executive Marissa Mayer to the Walmart board and for good reason. She will add a new layer of depth and expertise to Walmart’s board, but she won’t be the only digital darling on the board.