Corporate Governance

New York  -- The outlook for retail in the Northeast remains quite positive, with demand from national, local and franchise companies across a broad range of categories, according to Levin Management.

It’s official. Following a strategic review of the company’s growth strategies and structure, the eBay board has approved a plan to separate the company’s eBay and PayPal businesses into independent publicly traded companies in 2015, subject to customary conditions.

Bentonville, Ark. – Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is reportedly claiming that comedian Tracy Morgan was not wearing a seat belt when a truck driven by one of its drivers struck a vehicle Morgan was traveling in on the New Jersey Turnpike on June 7, critically injuring Morgan and killing one of his fellow passengers. According to Bloomberg, Wal-Mart said Morgan is partially or fully to blame for his injuries in a filing in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey.

Johnson & Johnson has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Alios BioPharma, a privately held clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies for viral diseases, for approximately $1.8 billion in cash.

The acquisition will include Alios BioPharma's portfolio of potential therapeutics for viral infections including compound AL-8176, an orally administered antiviral therapy currently in Phase 2 studies for the treatment of infants with respiratory syncytial virus.
 

West Des Moines, Iowa - Hy-Vee will deploy the Retail 20/20 exception reporting solution from Agilence Inc. The grocery chain will use the solution to improve operations and reduce shrink.

"While looking for a solution we were keen on finding one that could help us improve our in-store operations, while also making exception reporting a priority," said Darren Baty, senior VP and CIO, Hy-Vee. "After seeing Retail 20/20 in action it became clear that we would be able to reduce shrink and improve our front end with this tool."

New York - MG Properties, the real estate investment and development arm of McCourt Global, is entering an equity and development partnership with Hines, the international real estate firm, on the development of its mixed-use project at 360 Tenth Ave. in New York City. MG Properties and Hines have selected SHoP Architects to design the project.

In 2013, 360 Tenth Avenue was purchased from Sherwood Equities for approximately $167.5 million. The property is zoned for up to 733,406-sq.-ft. of Total Zoning Floor Area (ZFA).

HoneyBaked is wasting no time in preparing for the holiday season by adding more than 10,000 part-time employees to its current workforce — a 600% total increase in its workforce across 400 stores nationwide.

New Albany, Ohio – A federal judge has reportedly rejected an Aug. 29 settlement of a lawsuit over the pay received by co-CEO Michael Jeffries. According to Reuters, U.S. District Judge James Graham in Columbus, Ohio, said shareholders belonging to the City of Plantation, Florida Police Officers' Employees' Retirement System, who challenged the $140 million in pay and additional travel expenses Jeffries has received since 2007, give up too much in the settlement.