News

A new marketing campaign from Fruit of the Loom called “Start Happy,” includes an innovative LinkedIn component that rewards those who start a new job with free underwear.

The LinkeIn component is called, “Fresh Gigs,” and runs through the month of October and builds on the central premise of the campaign which is that underwear has the ability to influence the entire day, thus the “Start Happy,” tag line.

Armonk, N.Y. -- IBM announced the acquisition of Xtify Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based mobile messaging tools that help organizations improve mobile sales, drive in-store traffic and engage customers with personalized offers. Financial terms are not being disclosed.

The acquisition will help extend IBM’s mobile capabilities to digital marketers across all industries ranging from retail to citizen engagement in the public sector through cloud-based services.

New York – Verizon is preparing for the fourth quarter beta release of Verizon Cloud, its new cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform and cloud-based object storage service. With this service, Verizon hopes to combine the agility and economic benefit of a generic public cloud with the reliability and scale of an enterprise-level service, along with a high degree of control of performance.

Matthews, N.C. -- Shareholders of Harris Teeter Supermarkets on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to approve the previously announced merger with The Kroger Co.
 
Under the terms of the agreement, Harris Teeter shareholders will receive $49.38 per share in cash for each share of Harris Teeter common stock that they own.

Upon closing of the transaction, Harris Teeter’s common stock will no longer be publicly traded and Harris Teeter will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Kroger.
 

Rye, N.Y. -- Jarden Corporation, a global consumer products company, announced that it has completed its acquisition of Yankee Candle Investments LLC from a fund managed by Madison Dearborn Partners for approximately $1.75 billion in cash, subject to final working capital and other adjustments.

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Washington, D.C. – The National Retail Federation’s Shop.org expects holiday sales to grow between 13%-15% from last holiday season to as much as $82 billion.

“Online and mobile continue to be a leading area of growth for retailers. In this economy savvy, cost-conscious consumers go to the web to do their research and get the best bang for their buck,” said NRF president and CEO Matthew Shay.

Doubling your store count is the type of growth most retailers seek. So 38-unit, Louisiana-based grocery retailer Rouses didn’t complain back in 2007 when it upped its store count in Louisiana and Mississippi from 15 to 32 by purchasing the regional Sav-A-Center chain from A&P. However, for a family-owned business that had previously grown organically, this sudden spurt in its number and distribution of stores created a few issues.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. - Sears Holdings Corp. has borrowed $1 billion under a new a senior secured term loan facility under an existing credit agreement from April 2011. The existing credit agreement continues to provide for a $3.275 billion asset-based revolving credit facility.

Last month, Sears said it would obtain the loan to help reduce how much money it borrowed under the existing credit facility. The new loan is due June 2018.

 

A survey of 87 retailers conducted by Pacific Gas & Electric found many are unhappy with their lighting and are considering LED lighting to save energy. But, at the same time, they lack sufficient information to evaluate products.