Corporate Governance

Foster City, Calif. – Global credit and debit card issuer Visa Inc. has publicly called for adoption of secure payment technology in response to recent high-profile retailer data breaches. In a short statement contained within a financial release, Visa CEO Charlie Scharf said Visa wants to move U.S. retailers toward PIN-and-chip cards that use the Europass, Matercard, Visa (EMV) standard, and away from the more commonly used magnetic stripe cards.

Framingham, Mass. - Joe Doody, president North American commercial, has been named vice chairman of Staples, Inc., and Shira Goodman, executive VP, global growth, has been named president, North American commercial of Staples, Inc. Both Doody and Goodman will continue to report to Ron Sargent, chairman and CEO. The appointments are effective February 2.

Intrix Technology, a leading payment processor, has named Peter N. Matino as chief sales officer, a newly created position.

In his new role, Matino is responsible for building a nationwide sales organization and executing an integrated sales strategy as well as developing and executing corporate marketing strategies.

Camp Hill, Pa. - For the four-week period ended Jan. 25, Rite Aid’s same-store sales grew 1.8%. Front-end same-store sales decreased 1.3%, attributable to a decrease in flu-related over-the-counter drug sales.

Total drug sales for the month increased 1.5% to $1.94 billion, compared to $1.91 billion in the same period a year earlier.

Toronto – Sears Canada, which laid off more than 1,300 employees on Jan. 15, is cutting an additional 624 jobs. In a press release, the retailer said it is modifying its store structure to improve efficiency and increase the effectiveness of the chain of communication between management and the store associate teams within the stores.

Walmart Supercenters in California benefit communities by supporting additional job creation, small business growth and more robust sales tax revenues, according to a new economic impact report.

The study was conducted by economist Lon Hatamiya of the Hatamiya Group and the results were announced by Walmart, which is sure to cause opponents of the company to question the validity of the results. That said, key findings of the study show the following:

Salt Lake City – Overstock.com reported substantial increases in net income during the full year and fourth quarter 2013. During the full fiscal year, net income jumped 503% to $88.5 million from $14.7 million the prior fiscal year.

During the fourth quarter, net income rose an ever larger 737% to $73.6 million from $8.8 million. Revenue increased 19% during the full fiscal year to $1.3 billion from $1.09 billion, and grew 16% to $397.6 million from $342 million during the fourth quarter.

Research Triangle Park, N.C. -- ChannelAdvisor Corporation, a provider of cloud-based e-commerce solutions, is expanding its Webstores Amplifier with support for Bigcommerce, an e-commerce website platform that allows small and medium businesses to quickly set up online stores. The ChannelAdvisor Webstores Amplifier simplifies product creation, automatically synchronizes inventory and standardizes fulfillment across multiple online channels and retail websites for its customers.