International Business

Columbus, Ohio -- Facility Source, a global provider of facility maintenance and management solutions to retailers, has received an investment of $10 million from BMO Capital Markets’ Mezzanine Fund.

This infusion of capital will allow FacilitySource to fund growth and strategic capital expenditures, including expansion of its offices in North America and Europe, continued investment in its software applications to support retail facility management solutions, as well as pursue potential strategic acquisitions.

Although Walmart won’t provide official fourth-quarter sales guidance until Nov. 15 when it releases third-quarter sales, company executives sounded very bullish about Walmart’s prospects for holiday success and longer-term growth during an all-day meeting with financial analysts on Wednesday.

Sylvia Mathews Burwell was named president of the Walmart Foundation Friday morning and will join the organization in January 2012. She currently serves as president global development for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and will replace Margaret McKenna who served as president of the Walmart Foundation since 2007 and announced her retirement earlier this year.

New York City -- Gap executives reaffirmed its commitment to reducing square footage at home, aggressive international expansion and online growth during a presentation at Gap Global Creative Center in New York City. Gap also revealed that its online-only Piperlime division will explore a store concept next year and is testing men’s apparel.

NEW YORK — Gap executives reaffirmed its commitment to reducing square footage at home, aggressive international expansion and online growth during a presentation at Gap Global Creative Center in New York City. Gap also revealed that its online-only Piperlime division will explore a store concept next year and is testing men’s apparel.

Saving people money so they can live better is Walmart’s mission globally, now the company just has to convince shoppers worldwide that shopping at stores that offer an every day low price value proposition is the key to their prosperity.

Burlington, Mass. -- Demandware announced that Lush Cosmetics has selected the Demandware Commerce platform to power three new e-commerce storefronts in North America, including its U.S. English, Canadian English and Canadian French sites.

After evaluating several solutions, Lush felt the power of Demandware’s on-demand model would lessen the administrative requirements of its on-premise platform, while providing them with the freedom to custom-develop and support potential multi-site global deployments.

PLANO, Texas — JCPenney Co. said Wednesday it will acquire the worldwide rights for the Liz Claiborne family of brands, as well as the United States and Puerto Rico rights for the Monet brand for $267.5 million.

The company has been the exclusive licensee for all Liz Claiborne and Claiborne-branded merchandise in the United States and Puerto Rico since August 2010.