News

American Greetings has promoted Gregory Steinberg to CFO, effective March 1. Steinberg was most recently the company's corporate treasurer.  

He will be responsible for all finance functions at the company. The previous CFO, Stephen J. Smith, recently resigned to accept another employment opportunity.

San Bruno, Calif. -- WalmartLabs, Walmart’s online and digital development division, has acquired Seattle-based recipe technology startup Yumprint to expand its online grocery delivery services.

Yumprint has a website and mobile app to search and discover new recipes from thousands of food blogs, plan meals and calculate nutritional information.

Kohl’s reported a profit of $334 million, or $1.56 per share, for the fourth quarter ended Feb. 1, down from $378 million, or $1.66 a share, a year earlier. The retailer attributed the dip to an increase in e-commerce shipping costs and holiday season markdowns.

But the retailer expressed confidence in its inventory levels and assortment, adding that it is well-positioned for spring and anticipates sales increases.

Target continues to cope with the fallout of a data breach, which, as expected, hurt the company’s fourth-quarter results.

The company incurred $61 million in expenses related to the breach during the quarter, but was able to bring the total impact to $17 million after applying a $44 million insurance payment.

But the retailer added that it is not only unable to estimate future expenses related to the data breach but also warned that those costs may adversely affect operations results in the first quarter and full-year 2014 and future periods.

New York – Aeropostale Inc. is reportedly working with investment bank Barclays plc to investigate options including selling the company to a private equity firm or a regular equity sale. According to Bloomberg, Aeropostale CEO Tom Johnson is already trying to reverse four consecutive quarters of losses through new products and the closure of up to 40 stores.

In November 2013, major investor Crescendo Partners sent Aeropostale a letter demanding the company sell itself. Aeropostale and Barclays did not comment in the article.

The TJX Companies CEO Carol Meyrowitz touted the company’s performance in the fourth quarter and fiscal 2014, calling it a successful year despite a competitive retail environment and generally unfavorable weather in many of its regions during the first and fourth quarters.

New Albany, Ohio – Abercrombie & Fitch Co.'s fourth-quarter net income plunged 58%, less than Wall Street expected, amid several one-time charges, including costs tied to the closure of its Gilly Hicks’ stores. The company’s board also approved a $150 million accelerated share repurchase plan, to be executed during the first quarter.

For the quarter ended Feb 1, Abercrombie’s income fell to $66.1 million from $157.2 in the year-ago period. For the full year, income declined 77% to $54.6 million from $237 million last year.

Discount Coupons has acquired Daily Deal Builder (DDB), a Daily Deal software and solutions provider.

DDB’s software platform allows anyone to set up, manage and host a feature-rich Daily Deal or coupon website. Currently, more than 150 companies in the U.S. and abroad utilize DDB as their Daily Deal software provider. DDB Founders Marc and Tyler Horne will remain with DDB and form part of the company's growing staff.