Target Corp. agreed to purchase grocery-delivery startup Shipt Inc. for $550 million, stepping up its challenge to Amazon.com Inc. by speeding the rollout of same-day shipping. The all-cash deal will let Target customers order groceries and other goods online, and then have the items sent directly to their doors from nearby Target stores. Buying Shipt […]
A welder works at the Gunderson Rail Car Plant in Portland, Ore., in January 2013. Caterpillar unit United Industries agreed to pay $20 million in restitution to Greenbrier, TTX and Pacer International, as part of a plea agreement in which it admitted to cheating customers by performing unnecessary repairs to their railcars. A welder works […]
You don’t have to look too hard these days for signs trouble is brewing in the athletic apparel business. Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. is cranking up the discounts to lure shoppers back to its struggling stores. Nike Inc. is scrambling to offer more innovative products and reduce its dependence on “mediocre” retailers. The stock prices of […]
Could Amazon.com Inc.’s anticipated meteorite-hit to Australia’s beleaguered retail industry have burned up on entry? That was certainly the popular reaction to its arrival. Within hours of the e-commerce giant’s online store finally going live in the country on Tuesday, shoppers were close to despair. The store was “ripping off Australian consumers with high prices,” “so underwhelming” […]
Travel to the edge of any Chinese city and eventually you’ll find a parking lot full of idling trucks and suffocating diesel emissions. In bigger cities, such as Shanghai, these lots sprawl for tens of acres and can lead to paralyzing traffic jams when they overflow. Even as China embraces ride sharing and delivery drones, […]
Hong Kong has seen its fair share of illiquid stocks that soared amid suspicions of manipulation only to collapse, with Hanergy Thin Film Power Group Ltd. perhaps the most notorious recent example. China is anxious to avoid such explosions on its own exchanges. That’s the motivation behind the plan to assign unique identifiers to each investor or firm trading […]
Is Toyota Motor Corp. betting on the Betamax of cars? The videotape recorder that lost out to VHS in the format wars of the 1980s remains a reminder to all executives about the perils of holding tight to one technology when the rest of your industry is pursuing another. Toyota insists on throwing money at cars […]
It’s the U.S. import British retailers could do without. Black Friday marks the start of what promises to be a difficult Christmas for retailers — and the blizzard of special offers is a sign this year will be tougher than ever. With inflation outstripping wage growth and higher interest rates looming, consumers are turning more […]
The aftermath of mass shootings in the U.S. invariably features an outpouring of donations for the victims and their families. These days, increasingly, that impulse to give is channeled through a crowdfunding website instead of a traditional nonprofit organization. A GoFundMe campaign reported more than $11.4 million in donations after an attack on a music festival in Las […]
Is Tesla Inc.’s Semi on the verge of doing to the trucking industry what the iPhone did to telecommunications? Probably not — but the decarbonization of road freight may still upend both the logistics business and the oil industry. To see why, have a look at the International Energy Agency’s estimates last week for future oil demand. Consumption […]
Carillion Plc forgot to throw in the kitchen sink when it did a management clear-out and massive profit warning earlier this year. The U.K. construction group has just issued a fresh trading alert and is warning it is likely to breach its banking covenants at the end of this year. The shares fell as much […]