Strategy

Bentonville, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said in a Friday emailed statement that the co-heads of its technology unit @WalmartLabs are leaving the company.

Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman, who ran the 200- person unit in San Bruno, Calif., are taking some time off from the industry, according to the statement. The pair took the helm of @WalmartLabs when Wal-Mart bought their company Kosmix last year.

Wal-Mart said the rest of the technology team will remain intact.
 

Walmart will have to trust that their @WalmartLabs team is ready to take on the growing challenges of the company's online business now that Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman have stepped down as co-heads.

Harinarayan and Rajaraman became the heads of @WalmartLabs last year when Walmart bought their company Kosmix as a means of enhancing its e-commerce platform through social media.

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Irvine, Calif. -- TNP Strategic Retail Trust said Friday it has acquired Bloomingdale Hills, a 13-acre retail center in the Tampa, Fla., suburb of Riverview.

TNP is a public non-traded REIT that invests in grocery and drugstore anchored, multi-tenant necessity retail properties and other real estate-related assets.

Bloomingdale Hills comprises about 78,500 sq. ft. of rentable space, as well as a fully improved, undeveloped land parcel.

The center is anchored by Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market and is 100% leased.
 

The timing of store openings in Mexico and Central America will be delayed by as much as 90 days due to what the company described as “process changes” that will increase the time required to open a store.

Wal-Mart de Mexico, S.A.B. de C.V. in an update to its expansion program disclosed to the Mexican Stock Exchange that it contemplated completing its 2012 expansion program 60 to 90 days later than originally planned. As a result new store openings for the current year will now range between 325 and 335 units.

New York -- A Thursday report by Bloomberg said that Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren is slated to give his deposition next month over a contract dispute with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc.

Citing documents filed Thursday in New York state court, Bloomberg said that Lundgren is scheduled for a half-day of questioning on July 3 in advance of a July 13 hearing on his company’s request for a preliminary injunction.

The timing of store openings in Mexico and Central America will be delayed by as much as 90 days due to what the company described as “process changes” that will increase the time required to open a store.

Wal-Mart de Mexico, S.A.B. de C.V. in an update to its expansion program disclosed to the Mexican Stock Exchange that it contemplated completing its 2012 expansion program 60 to 90 days later than originally planned. As a result new store openings for the current year will now range between 325 and 335 units.

Issaquah, Wash. -- Costco Wholesale Corp.’s international executive VP James Murphy said Thursday that the warehouse club operator is pursuing a European expansion program.

Murphy told Bloomberg that Costco is “interested in investing in the obvious four -- Germany, Italy, France and Spain.” The company hasn’t decided which country would debut first and will probably open a store in the region “in the next couple of years,” Murphy said in the Bloomberg interview.

Duracell is bringing peace of mind to the battery category thanks to a new innovation that extends battery life to 10 years when left in storage.

Duracell manufacturer Procter & Gamble called the brand’s new Duralock technology the greatest innovation since the Coppertop was introduced and vowed a level of marketing support that is unprecedented in the brand’s 40-year history.