International Business

SECAUCUS, N.J. — Panasonic Corporation of North America has launched a new communication campaign designed to bring attention to the brand's broad scope of products and solutions designed to meet consumer, business-to-business, and industrial needs. The campaign will also underscore Panasonic's global commitment to becoming the electronics industry's leader in green innovation by its 100th anniversary in 2018.

Newell Rubbermaid’s net sales declined 1.9% to $1.52 billion in the second quarter ended June 30. Net income declined 23.8% to $111.8 million. But those declines didn’t prevent CEO Michael Polk from looking at the bright side and pointing to momentum.

Core sales, which exclude the impact of changes in foreign currency translation, grew by 0.4%. And net sales for the first six months were $2.85 billion, up 1.0 % from the first-half results last year.

Birmingham, Ala. -- Books-A-Million has named Michael Rediker as corporate development analyst. Rediker will be responsible for identifying, analyzing and implementing strategic corporate initiatives within the organization, including new business growth opportunities.

Rediker was most recently with the investment banking firm Paces Battle Group Inc. where he also provided a broad array of transactional and other corporate finance services to bank and thrift clients.

ATLANTA — Coca-Cola has streamlined its operating structure and the senior leaders for those businesses, the company said.

New York -- Richard Schulze, the founder of Best Buy, is recruiting a team of managers to run the company should his attempt to take the company private be successful, according to a report by Bloomberg.

“He is talking to people he trusts. There is a small group he’d like to have with him in righting the ship,” J.D. Wilson, senior VP of enterprise capabilities, said in an interview with Bloomberg.

Wilson said his position is being eliminated as part of Best Buy’s planned cutbacks.

Chicago -- A Thursday report compiled by Reuters and published in the Chicago Tribune said that U.S. authorities are weighing whether or not to launch a wide-scale investigation of the retail industry for bribery violations.

The news comes after Wal-Mart de Mexico came under scrutiny for potentially violating an anti-foreign bribery law, allegedly orchestrating bribes of $24 million to facilitate its growth in the region.     

An “exclusive” report from Reuters this week suggests U.S. authorities are poised to put the retail industry under the microscope as a result of Walmart’s bribery scandal in Mexico.

MONTREAL — Toy manufacturer Mega Brands reported that net sales in the second quarter increased 13% to $94.5 million compared with $83.9 million in the corresponding 2011 period.

Toy sales increased 14% compared to the second quarter of 2011, driven by higher product shipments in the preschool and boys construction categories. Toy sales have increased year-over-year in ten of the last 11 quarters.

Sales of stationery and ctivities products were up 10%, the fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth in this segment.