Legislative, Regulatory & Legal

Cleveland -- Forest City Realty Trust announced that its subsidiary, Nets Sports and Entertainment has completed the previously announced sale of its equity interests in both the Barclays Center arena and the Brooklyn Nets basketball team to Onexim Sports and Entertainment Holding USA. As previously disclosed, the transaction values the team at approximately $875 million and the arena at $825 million, inclusive of debt for each asset.

Retailers looking for validation that their data privacy efforts matter can look to disturbing new figures from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

According to data released by the FTC, it received more than 490,000 consumer complaints about identity theft in 2015. This is a 47% increase from the number of identity theft complaints in 2014. The Department of Justice estimates that in total, 17.6 million Americans were victims of identity theft in 2014.

Fast-food chain The Wendy’s Co. may be the first big retailer to suffer a public data security incident in 2016.

According to the Krebs on Security blog, Wendy’s is investigating possible fraudulent activity related to credit cards used at some of its store locations. Wendy’s was notified earlier this month by partners in the payment industry that unusual activity was occurring.

Wal-Mart Stores has learned that TRC Capital Corporation has made an unsolicited “mini-tender” offer dated Jan. 20, 2016, the company announced Tuesday. TRC has offered to purchase up to 2 million shares of Walmart’s common stock at $59.88 per share. The offering price is approximately 4.3% below the closing price per share of Walmart’s common stock on Jan. 19, 2016, the last trading day before the commencement of the offer.

Walmart is not associated with TRC and recommends that shareholders reject this unsolicited offer.

It looks like the proverbial fat lady has sung for Dov Charney, the founder and ousted CEO of the troubled American Apparel.

On Monday, Judge Brendan L. Shannon of the Bankruptcy Court in Delaware approved a plan backed by a majority of the company’s bondholders. The plan would take American Apparel private and hand nearly full control to its largest lenders.

Dov Charney, founder and outsted CEO of American Apparel, made an emotional—and meandering—plea to regain control of the company at a bankruptcy court hearing in Delaware on Thursday.

“I’m a merchant, I’m a creative artist, I’m a photographer, I’m a marketer, I’m an industrialist,” Charney said, according to the New York Times. “I don’t want to hand over my company. This is coercion.”

Staples is giving itself three more months before calling off its proposed $6.3 billion acquisition of Office Depot, giving the companies time to fight an antitrust lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission.

National Retail Federation president and CEO Matt Shay shared a message of inspiration and transformation to mark the beginning of the trade group’s annual Big Show, which again drew a record number of attendees to New York.

Joyce Leslie on Monday announced that it filed a motion on January 14th for court approval to set bid procedures and an auction date for a sale of most of its assets.

The young women’s fashion retailer had previously announced that it had filed a voluntary petition under Chapter 11 on Jan. 9.

Has founder and ousted CEO Dov Charney made his last stand at American Apparel?

The board of American Apparel Inc. rejected a $300-million takeover bid from Hagan Capital Group and Silver Creek Capital Partners — the investors aligned with Charney — according to the Los Angeles Times.