Corporate Governance

Retail sales sizzled in January, beating expectations. Even the struggling department store sector managed to beat the odds.   Retail sales, excluding automobiles and gasoline, grew 0.4% in January, according to the National Retail Federation. (The numbers exclude automobiles, gasoline stations and restaurants)  

The formerly high-flying Nasty Gal has been brought down to earth — and not in a good way.   The bankrupt fashion retailer will close its two Los Angeles-area stores by the end of February, the Wall Street Journal reported.    On Feb. 8, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California approved the sale of Nasty Gal’s intellectual property and customer database to British online fashion retailer Boohoo.com, which is seeking to speed up its expansion in the United States. 

Walgreens Boots Alliance is losing its chief merchandising and marketing officer.   Linda Filler, Walgreens' president of retail products and chief merchandising and marketing officer, will depart the retailer effective April 1. Filler has been in the role since January 1, 2015. Prior to joining the drug store chain, she was president of Claire’s Stores. Before Claire’s, Filler served as was executive VP and chief merchandising officer for Sam’s Club,   

Mattress Firm has tapped a veteran energy marketing executive to head up its marketing efforts.    The company has appointed Sicily Dickenson as its chief marketing officer. Dickenson brings more than 13 years of experience in digital marketing, marketing communications, creative services and brand marketing.    

RCS Real Estate Advisors will receive a Turnaround Award from M&A Advisor later this month for its work in the reorganization of Pacific Sunwear.  

Companies that suffer a data breach are subject to customer, opportunity and revenue losses well exceeding 20%.   This was according to the “2017 Annual Cybersecurity Report (ACR),” from Cisco, which surveyed nearly 3,000 chief security officers (CSOs) and security operations leaders from 13 countries in the “Security Capabilities Benchmark Study,” part of the ACR.  

For the first time ever, Amazon has released data that details how much money its Prime membership program and other subscription services bring in.    Amazon disclosed in its latest annual filing that it brought in $6.4 billion from Amazon Prime and other subscription services, Bloomberg reported.   

A key advisor to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has been appointed to a new position in the company — one that reflects its continued focus on delivery infrastructure.   Maria Renz, who served as technical advisor to Bezos for the past two years, has been named to the new role of VP of delivery experience, reported Recode.