Trading Partners

New York City -- Barnes & Noble's shareholders on Wednesday ratified a shareholder rights plan that prevents an outside investor from acquiring 20% or more of the company's shares without board approval. 

Preliminary results show 72% of shareholders voted in favor of the plan at a special shareholder meeting in New York. The plan limits shareholder stakes to 20%, finally making the so-called "poison pill" official.

San Francisco -- Levi Strauss and Co., Wal-Mart Stores, The Gap, Hanesbrands, Nordstrom, and Gildan Activewear scored highest on survey of global supply chain compliance programs of U.S. apparel brands and retailers released Tuesday by corporate responsibility group As You Sow.

Chicago -- Jones Lang LaSalle announced it has formed an alliance with the Property Tax division within Thomson Reuters’ Tax & Accounting business to provide tax mitigation services to corporate real estate clients.

Jones Lang LaSalle’s Real Estate Tax Mitigation offering provides review, recommendations and appeal processes to manage a corporation’s real estate tax budget.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. -- A Detroit court on Wednesday said that Charles Conaway, the former head of Kmart Corp., has agreed to pay $5.5 million to end long-running litigation with government regulators over the retailer's finances nearly 10 years ago.

The deal would stop Conaway's appeal of a court-ordered financial penalty for misleading investors before Kmart's bankruptcy filing in 2002.

The appeals court has agreed to send the case back to federal court in Detroit to handle the settlement.