Torrid closing up to 180 stores; net sales drop in Q1

Steve Lacy greeted me in his office as if we were old friends. A top executive at the Meredith Corporation, he was a main driver of the company’s $2.8 billion acquisition of Time Inc. last November. With that deal, the 116-year-old Meredith Corporation became the largest magazine publisher in America. When he spoke, it was clear Mr. Lacy took pride in Meredith’s unassuming corporate culture, so far removed from the New York magazine scene. “In Des Moines, Iowa, we don’t have to prove anything to anybody about the Meredith Corporation,” Mr. Lacy said. “We don’t have drivers. We’d look silly, and it would be not in keeping with who we are.” He added, “I presume you know that if I want a black car, I can get one.” Click Read More below for additional information.

The Home Depot® announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire HD Supply Holdings, Inc., a leading national distributor of maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) products in the multifamily and hospitality end markets. The acquisition is expected to position The Home Depot as a premier provider in the MRO marketplace. "The MRO customer is highly valued by The Home Depot, and this acquisition will position the company to accelerate sales growth by better serving both existing and new customers in a highly fragmented $55 billion marketplace," said Craig Menear, chairman and CEO of The Home Depot. "HD Supply complements our existing MRO business with a robust product offering and value-added service capabilities, an experienced salesforce that enhances the strong team we have in place, as well as an extensive, MRO-specific distribution network throughout the U.S. and Canada."

A survey published this month by Booknet Canada found that Canadians prefer reading books in print. It also found that more are opting to do their reading on smartphones, or listen to audiobooks. The results of the survey, which come from 750 respondents, found that 90% of respondents that had read a book in the last year had read a print book. However, 22% of respondents ranked reading last among a string of leisure activities that include browsing the Internet (33%), spending time with family (32%), watching TV (31%) and going to the movies (23%). BookNet Canada, a nonprofit book industry research organization, reported that 82% of respondents said they had read a book in the last year, about the same percentage as its 2016 survey found. The number of respondents who had read at least one book during the past year has been declining since 2014 though, when 88% of respondents reported reading at least one book. Click Read More below for more of the story.