Corporate Governance

New York — Wal-Mart Stores found itself at the center of two national news stories this past weekend, both of which involved fatalities.

 On Saturday, June 7, a truck driver for Walmart was charged in the highway crash that left comedian Tracy Morgan critically injured and killed one of Morgan’s associates, comedian James McNair.

Mooresville, N.C. — Paul D. Ramsay has been promoted to CIO of Lowe’s Companies Inc., effective immediately. He has been serving as acting CIO since March.  

North Bergen, N.J. — Vitamin Shoppe Inc. has purchased FDC Vitamins LLC, doing business as Nutri-Force Nutrition, a contract manufacturer of vitamins, minerals and supplements, from MBF Healthcare Partners L.P. and other minority holders. Nutri-Force is a current manufacturer for Vitamin Shoppe as well as for other domestic and international customers and distributors.

Bolingbrook, Ill. — Vanessa Wittman, senior VP and CFO of Motorola Mobility, a subsidiary of Google, has been appointed the Ulta Beauty board of directors and as a member of its audit committee, effective June 5, 2014, following her election at the company’s annual shareholder meeting. Wittman joins the Ulta Beauty board with more than 25 years of experience in finance and technology.

The Hillshire Brands Company has confirmed that it received a unilateral binding offer from Tyson Foods to acquire all its outstanding common shares for $63 per share in cash.

By its terms, the Tyson Foods offer will remain in place until the termination of the Hillshire Brands/Pinnacle merger agreement or December 12, whichever comes first.

Kellogg’s has teamed up with New York Times bestselling author, Emmy-nominated TV personality and board-certified emergency medicine physician Dr. Travis Stork in a campaign that touts the importance of breakfast and positions the brand as a valuable source of protein grains.

The company plans to promote various cereal brands such as All Bran, Frosted Mini-Wheats, Raisin Bran and Special K Original by pointing out how much protein and other essential nutrients can be found in one serving plus one cup of skim milk.

Jos. A. Bank continued the positive trend of increases in adjusted earnings that it saw in the second half of 2013. Comparable brand sales increased by double digits in the first two months of the first quarter, and despite slowing down after Easter, still resulted in an 8.4% increase.

According to a Reuters report, Amazon is making headway into the online payments arena, which has long been dominated by PayPal.

The article says Amazon will start managing subscription payments for startups and other companies as soon as Monday. The service, according to the report, will allow the company's more than 240 million active users to use credit card details stored on Amazon.com to pay for services such as a monthly phone bill or a digital music subscription — for a fee on each transaction payable to Amazon.

Lowe's has named Paul D. Ramsay as chief information officer, effective immediately. Ramsay, who has been serving as acting CIO since March, will report to Richard D. Maltsbarger, who was himself appointed chief development officer. 

Ramsay is responsible for day-to-day operations of Lowe's IT organization, including the continued development of a technology portfolio designed to seamlessly support the operations of the company's stores, distribution network, e-commerce platforms and future business technology needs. 

Shopzilla, a leading platform that connects 50 million retail shoppers monthly with online marketers, has consolidated three marketing-centric business units — Audience Discovery and Activation Services — under the Connexity brand name.

“Connexity will uniquely combine consumer insights and media buying within the same programmatic platform, helping marketers to learn more about their customers, discover valuable audiences, and activate new consumers at scale,” the company said in a statement.