News

Haier America president and CEO Shariff Kan has stepped down and will be replaced by Adrian Micu, effective Feb. 10, according to the company.

Micu comes to Haier with more than 25 years of executive-level engineering, technology and product development experience within the appliance industry. Most recently, he held the position of VP engineering with Whirlpool Corporation.

San Francisco -- Shoppers will continue to be cautious in their spending in 2014, and they expect to make more money, save more money and afford the things they need. According to a forecast from digital coupon and discount site AnyCodes.com, this is because of a combination of three factors: consumer confidence in the future is climbing, they are focused on investing in themselves and paying off debt, and they are much confident about their job prospects.

Remember the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile? Well, the brand is offering a chance for people to “lease” the hot dog on wheels for eight hours via Twitter.

Participants must use hashtag #Tweet2Lease, and one winner will be chosen to get chauffeured around town for eight hours on the Wienermobile by the vehicle's drivers, known as Hotdoggers.

eBay performed strongly during the holiday. Mobile exceeded expectations for the year, allowing the global commerce platform and payments leader to finish the fourth quarter on a high note.

The company reported that revenue for the quarter ended Dec. 31 increased 13% to $4.5 billion, compared to the same period of 2012.

Both Marketplaces and PayPal achieved record mobile results in 2013, each exceeding $20 billion in mobile volume. Mobile users represented 40% of eBay’s 36 million new users and accounts in 2013.

St. Paul, Minn. – Bruegger’s Bagels opens a new store concept in Woodbury, Minn., today, and is launching a promotional contest to find artwork to place on a large brick feature wall in the store. Through March 31, amateur and professional artists can submit an abstract, two-dimensional design for the wall.

The winning design will be the focal point of the bakery and will be used in select new bakeries nationwide. The chosen artist will receive a $10,000 cash prize. Contest details are available on Bruegger’s Facebook page.

New York – Retail CIOs are preparing to take advantage of innovative technologies such as mobile, cloud and social, although they are less involved in efforts to leverage Big Data analytics. A new study of retail CIOs from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Forrester Consulting, “The Global Agenda of Retail CIOs,” retail CIOs plan to rapidly implement an array of mobile technologies, with context-aware tech (32%), mobile payments (28%), digital signage (24%), and mobile POS (22%) leading the way.

New York -- eBay posted a profit of $850 million, compared with earnings of $751 million a year ago, for its fourth quarter, ended Dec. 31, 2013, while revenues rose 13% to $4.5 billion, fueled by strong mobile results. In reporting its results, the company also said it has received a proposal from activist investor Carl Icahn seeking to spin off PayPal as a separate company.

Hudson's Bay Company’s CFO Michael Culhane is reportedly taking a leave of absence from the company. Assuming the CFO role will be Donald Watros, who on Feb. 1 will be stepping into his new role as president of the company.

HBC did not provide further details on Culhane or the CFO spot.