Labor & Employment

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.

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.

Patrick Byrne has relinquished his role as chairman of Overstock.com and Stormy Simon was named president of the online discount retailer.

New York -- Increasing tax burdens (76%) are the top concern of retail CEOs, according to PwC’s 17th Annual Global CEO Survey. Worries about the tax burden were followed by the government response to the fiscal deficit and debt burden (74%), over-regulation (69%), the high and volatile prices of raw materials (68%), and exchange rate volatility (64%).

Boca Raton, Fla. -- Office Depot Inc. has been named to the 15th annual list of America’s Top Corporations for Women’s Business Enterprises (WBEs) by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). This marks the 12th year that Office Depot has been named to the list.

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.

Matthews, N.C. – Family Dollar Stores Inc. plans to close about 370 underperforming stores , cut jobs and lower prices on 1,000 basic items on the heels of a disappointing second quarter. The retailer is also slowing its new store growth beginning in fiscal 2015 to bolster its return on investment. It now anticipates opening 350 to 400 new stores as opposed to approximately 525 stores in 2014.
 

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.