News

LOS ANGELES — Virtual Piggy has integrated its youth-friendly payment system to Innovation First International, the company behind the award-winning Hexbug Micro Robotic Creatures and Vex Robotics product lines.

Innovation First International is a technology and engineering company that has launched several robotics product lines spanning the consumer toy, STEM education and business-to-business markets.

Los Angeles -- Arden Group, owner of the 16-unit Gelson’s Market grocery chain, said that the company is exploring its strategic options and has hired financial adviser Moelis & Co. to help with the review process.

The options may include a possible sale of the company.

No timeline for any potential transactions has been outlined.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Coupons.com — a leading online printable, pure digital and mobile promotions coupons provider — has made some changes to its executive team.

The company has appointed Matthew J. Wisk as its CMO and Stephen F. Simpson as its VP of production operations.

The U.S. Census Bureau released a report showing an increase of 0.6% in retail trade sales for June when compared to May. Sales were up 6% when compared to June 2012.

The figures are adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, and exclude automobiles, gas stations and restaurants.

ATLANTA — Newell Rubbermaid has announced the sale of its Teach platform, including the Mimio and Headsprout interactive teaching technology brands, to Skyview Capital, LLC, a Beverly Hills, Calif., private equity firm.

Terms were not disclosed. The transaction has closed with the signing of the agreement.

Brampton, Ontario – Loblaw Companies Limited announced it will acquire Shoppers Drug Mart in a deal worth about $11.9 billion, merging the Canadian grocery and drug retailers. Shoppers Drug Mart will retain its name and brand and operate as a separate division of Loblaw while expanding its product offerings to include Loblaw's private label and convenience food products. Shoppers Drug Mart gives Loblaw entry into the small urban store sector.

IRVINE, Calif. — Sanuk, a division of Deckers Outdoor Corporation, has made changes to its sales and marketing teams. The company has appointed Jeff Booth as its core national sales manager and Tommy Campagne as its core marketing manager.

New York – Online apparel retailer Bonobos is automating its Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud infrastructure with the Opscode Hosted Chef solution. Using Hosted Chef and its Knife EC2 command-line plug-in for AWS, Bonobos' engineering team can now manage more than 150 cloud servers and ensure 100% uptime for its website operations. The retailer is automating processes including configuration management and application delivery, as well as responding to spikes in customer traffic and orchestrating application updates.