Corporate Governance

Protein is the hot nutritional trend these days and Quest Nutrition has found a way to create a first-of-its-kind baked chip with 21 grams of protein per serving.

The company bills its new Quest Protein Chips as the world’s first high-protein snack potato chip and contends the product offers a revolutionary potato chip experience. The chips are actually good for people, according to the company, as opposed to simply being less bad than other snacks high in fat and salt.

New York -- American Apparel Inc. announced  four new directors to its board, including the company’s first-ever female board member, Colleen Brown, a former CEO of Fisher Communications, and former Walgreens executive Joseph Magnacca, who took the reins as CEO of RadioShack last year.  

The other new directors are  David Glazek, a partner with hedge fund Standard General, which holds a nearly 44% stake in American Apparel, and Thomas J. Sullivan, a director of Media General.

Davenport, Iowa -- Von Maur Department Stores will open its 30th store, at Quail Springs Mall in northern Oklahoma City, on Oct. 18. The split-level, 150,000-sq.-ft. store will be the company's first location in Oklahoma.

Located at the mall's former Sears location, the store will undergo a complete remodel in order to feature Von Maur's signature exterior brick facade, which includes arching entryways accented by copper cupolas.

Seattle -- Starbucks that its consolidated net revenue growth accelerated 11% in the third quarter, to $4.2 billion. Consolidated operating income increased 25%, to $769 million.

The coffee giant raised the number of net new stores it expects to open in its Americas region from 600 to 650.

Global same-store sales increased 6%, marking the 18th consecutive quarter of global comp growth of 5% or greater. Same-store sales in the United States rose 7%.  

Redwood City, Calif. -- Oracle Corp. announced it is opening a cloud development center in Seattle, its first such center outside of California. The company, which plans to hire about 100 engineers to start, said it chose Seattle to take advantage of the “deep expertise” in cloud computing available in the city’s rapidly growing technical community.

Camp Hill, Pa. -- Rite Aid Corporation announced that Darren Karst is joining Rite Aid as executive VP and CFO, effective Aug. 20.

Karst succeeds Frank Vitrano, who has announced he will retire in September, 2015. Until then, Vitrano retains the chief administrative officer responsibilities for the company’s information technology, real estate and indirect procurement functions. He will also serve as a key resource in the development and execution of new business and growth initiatives.

Salt Lake City – A 23% increase in Overstock.com’s sales and marketing expense helped reduce its second quarter fiscal 2014 net income to $1.9 million, down 48% from $3.7 million in the same period a year earlier. Revenue grew 13% to $332.5 million, from $293.2 million.

Patrick M. Byrne, CEO and chairman of Overstock.com, cited increases in technology spending as helping the company to quickly conceive and execute new ideas such as a recently launched consumer credit facility.

Norwalk, Conn. - The Priceline Group Inc. has successfully completed its previously announced tender offer to purchase all outstanding shares of common stock of OpenTable Inc. for $103 per share in cash. The all-cash transaction is valued at $2.6 billion.

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St. Louis – Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc. reduced its net loss to $4.3 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2014 from $6.2 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2013.

Consolidated net sales fell 7.7% to $75.4 million, from $80.4 million. Consolidated same-store sales dropped 4.9%.

Build-A-Bear cited the net closure of 10 stores from the prior year as helping to reduce revenues. CEO Sharon John said the company is poised for a strong second half of the fiscal year.