Data & Analytics

CINCINNATI — Good news for Macy’s, which has closed the cash tender offer by its wholly owned subsidiary, Macy’s Retail Holdings, Inc., to purchase up to $700 million in aggregate principal amount of its outstanding debt securities.

“Through this transaction and our recent debt issuance, we have successfully improved our debt maturity profile and decreased our ongoing interest expense,” said Karen M. Hoguet, Macy’s, Inc. CFO.

Microsoft has taken offense to the practice of paying to improve one’s ranking in Google search results and has launched a campaign touting its "honest" search results.

Google is the leader in search, but Bing contend the company has begun a "pay-to-rank" practice whereby companies ranking in product searches is determined by how much they pay. Bing derides the practices as being "Scroogled," and said its approach provides consumers with more credible results.

Rapidly growing food retailer The Fresh Market experienced a bit of a hiccup with its third quarter results, but president and CEO Craig Carlock contends the company’s long term vision remains intact.

Sales at the 128 unit retailer increased 22.1% to $321.5 million and profits increased 19% to $10.9 million, but analysts were looking for stronger profits and lower expenses. Some also believed the company’s relatively young store base should have produced a same store sales increase stronger than the 5.6% figure the company reported.

Duluth, Ga. -- NCR Corp. announced a definitive agreement for NCR to acquire Retalix Ltd., a leading global provider of innovative retail software and services, for a cash purchase price of $30.00 per Retalix share, for a transaction value of approximately $650 million.

New York -- The sales figures are in for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but the numbers don’t tell the whole story. Using a sophisticated social media analytics platform, SAP tracked consumer sentiment on these critical shopping days via Facebook, Twitter and 165 million other sites across the social web to identify patterns and uncover revealing shopper insights.

View SAP’s sentiment-tracking infographic here.

Where did the idea for the Black Friday and Cyber Monday Consumer Face-Off originate?

Reston, Va. -- Spending on Cyber Monday reached $1.46 billion, up 17% versus a year ago, making it the heaviest online spending day in history, according to comScore.

Retail e-commerce spending for the first 26 days of the November-December 2012 holiday season rose to $16.4 billion, up 16% versus the corresponding days last year.

Pittsburgh -- American Eagle Outfitters Inc. on Wednesday reported a higher-than-expected third-quarter profit, helped by strong same-store sales. The chain also raised its full-year earnings prompting it to raise its full-year forecast for the second time this year.

Net income for the quarter ended Oct. 27 rose to $78.6 million, from $52.4 million a year ago.

Sales rose 11% to $910 million. Same-store sales jumped 10%.

Issaquah, Wash. -- Costco Wholesale Corp. on Wednesday said it will pay a special dividend worth some $3.0 billion to investors, sending cash to its shareholders ahead of a likely increase in the dividend tax. The chain also posted monthly same-store sales that beat analysts' expectations.

“Our strong balance sheet and favorable access to the credit markets allow us to provide shareholders with this dividend,” Costco CFO Richard Galanti said in a statement.

Merrimack, N.H. -- Brookstone announced the launch of a new tablet-optimized website.

"In response to the growing trend of tablet shopping, Brookstone saw the importance of developing a premier tailored shopping experience for our customers to more easily navigate the site, find all the holiday gifts on their list and easily checkout," said Stephen Bebis, president and CEO of Brookstone. "We researched shopping behaviors, and incorporated the most successful retail mobile applications to enhance the experience."