Business Analytics

When Walmart executives speak about prices, inflation or the nation’s economic condition their comments create quite a stir, and that’s what we saw again this week when Bill Simon spoke to USA Today.

Washington, D.C. -- A report released Wednesday by The Conference Board said that online advertised vacancies rose 208,800 in March to 4,454,500.

According to The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine Data Series, the March rise follows a large January increase and a small change in February, and brings the gain in labor demand in the first quarter of 2011 to over 600,000.

Matthews, N.C. -- Family Dollar Stores reported Wednesday that net income for the quarter ended Feb. 26 rose 10% to $123.2 million, compared with $112.2 million a year earlier. Results were helped in part by improved traffic and higher transaction value.

Revenue increased 8% to $2.26 billion, from $2.09 billion. Same-store sales rose 5.1%.

Earlier in March, Family Dollar turned down an approximately $7 billion buyout offer from minority shareholder Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund.

New York City -- Saks said Tuesday that lenders have agreed to amend a $500 million revolving credit agreement that now extends to 2016. The agreement also favorably revises other terms.

As a result, the department store retailer estimates its 2011 interest expenses will total about $50 million, down from its previous estimate of $51 million to $53 million.

The debt previously was scheduled to mature Nov. 23, 2013. Now, it matures March 29, 2016.

Columbus, Ohio -- Retail Ventures, parent of off-price shoe retail chain DSW, reported Monday that net income for the quarter ended Jan. 29 was $5.7 million, compared with a loss of $5.3 million a year earlier.

Sales for the quarter were $468.5 million, up from $402.6 million in the year-ago period. DSW same-store sales increased 14.9%.

For the full year, net income was $51.8 million, compared with a loss of $65.6 million the year before. Sales were $1.82 billion, compared with $1.60 billion for the prior year.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Retail Ventures reported that income from continuing operations for the quarter ended Jan. 29 was $5.7 million on net sales of $468.5 million, compared with the loss from continuing operations of $5.3 million on net sales of $402.6 million for the same period last year. DSW same-store sales increased 14.9% during the fourth quarter versus an increase of 12.9% last year.

By Kenneth H. Marks, [email protected]

Great news! After a long drought of M & A activity, the market for private companies is showing signs of life and recovery. If you own, operate or advise a middle market company, $5 million to $500 million in revenue, what does this mean for you and your clients when thinking about shareholder liquidity or selling the business? And how can you improve the odds of getting a deal done?

New York City -- Tesco has installed wind turbines, each with a capacity of nearly 1 MW, at three of its grocery distribution centers.

The company installed two of the 90-meter, 800kW wind turbines at its distribution center near Newport in Wales, BusinessGreen reported. The other turbines are at two sites in England’s Midlands region.