Strategy

Analytics leader SAS has long promised customers “the power to know” and now a major enhancement to data visualization capabilities means retailers don’t have to be a Ph.D to do things faster and more effectively with their massive volumes of data.

Boca Raton, Fla. -- Office Depot will urge its stockholders to support a merger with Staples by asking them to vote in favor of the $6.3 billion acquisition by Staples at an annual meeting. Industry insiders say the merger could help the pair solidify their positions in the office supplies market and fend off gains made by Amazon and Walmart in the category.
 

Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook said the launch of the company's new watch has been "overwhelmingly positive" just as another seemingly unstoppable surge of iPhone and App Store sales helped Apple Inc. post a 33% increase in profit for the second quarter, setting a record for its best March quarter ever.

Executives at Abercrombie & Fitch Co. think that taking the sex out of its ads will solve the retailer's traffic problems, according to new reports. But the retailer may have more work to do than just firing the beefcake models.

Two big grocery chain executives will be overseeing the board of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.

New York -- A report by Financial Times revealed that eBay’s CEO John Donahoe spoke out in support of Google as the search-engine giant defends itself in an antitrust case lodged in Brussels, Belgium.

Cincinnati -- Kroger said Monday that it has ended a 12-year joint venture with British consumer data company Dunnhumby and launched its own customer data subsidiary.
 
The new subsidiary will help Kroger set prices in stores and decide which shoppers get certain coupons.  The ending of the joint venture comes after Dunnhumby's parent company, Tesco PLC, said it was seeking strategic options for Dunnhumby.

New York -- The National Association of Chain Drug Stores announced during its Annual Meeting, the election of new officers, four new executive committee members and five new board of directors member for the coming year.
 
Randy Edeker, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Hy-Vee will serve as the new NACDS chairman of the board of directors. Edeker succeeds John Standley, chairman and chief executive officer of Rite Aid.