Trading Partners

Columbus, Ohio — Express Inc. confirmed that it has received a letter from Sycamore Partners, which owns approximately 9.9% of Express' outstanding shares, indicating that the private equity firm is interested in acquiring the company. In response, Express adopted a one-year “poison pill” shareholder rights plan that would double its shares of common stock in the event any stockholder acquires 10% or more of the company.

Newell Rubbermaid president and CEO Michael Polk has joined the board of directors of Colgate-Palmolive. The move comes a little more than a month after the CPG company’s shareholders elected a slate of 10 directors.

Former Walmart president and CEO Mike Duke and company chairman Rob Walton drew large numbers negative votes when they stood for re-election to the retailer’s board at the annual shareholders’ meeting on Friday, June 6.

Daniel Castle, former Iconix VP of international and business development, will be joining Saban Brands as the company’s managing director of strategic business development.

New York — Target Corp. is introducing a new policy by imposing new rules on the cleaning companies it hires to clean its stores in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, Businessweek reported.

Brussels, Belgium — The European Union (E.U.) is investigating lucrative tax breaks individual member countries such as Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg have been giving major global companies including Starbucks and Apple. Media reports indicate the E.U. is focusing on whether certain tax loopholes these countries have provided some corporations qualify as “state aid,” which is prohibited under E.U. bylaws.

The maker of DNA Energy Drink is eating its words after incorrectly announcing a distribution agreement between DNA Brands and Trenton Coca-Cola on Monday.

DNA’s president and CEO, Eric Fowler, said Wednesday that the announcement from earlier this week was incorrect and that there was no agreement for distribution between the bottling company and DNA. The announcement also quoted Chuck Jones, citing him as president of the bottling company even though he is not.

Vancouver, Canada — Lululemon Athletica Inc. founder Chip Wilson announced that he voted against the re-election of Michael Casey and RoAnn Costin to the board of Lululemon Athletica. Wilson, who founded the company in 1998, had been living in Australia and was asked by the company to return and deal with a quality control issue that resulted in a product recall during 2013.