Management

Groupon fired Andrew Mason as chief executive officer on Thursday, ousting a co-founder who captured headlines with his quirky style but failed to reverse a crumbling share price or stop a gradual erosion of its main daily-deals business. The internet daily-deals company launched a search for a new leader to help turn it around, the same day its stock slid 24 percent after a dismal quarterly results report. 

Teen retailer Abercrombie & Fitch said Friday it plans to close 40 to 50 of its U.S. stores this year as the company's shares took a nosedive following lukewarm sales over the holiday shopping season, a crucial time for retail chains. Comparable store sales at Abercrombie's U.S. stores fell 1 percent in the fourth quarter, furthering previous declines in the company's selling power.

Best Buy announced it's cutting 400 jobs at its headquarters as part of its “Renew Blue” transformation efforts. The job reductions are part of a move to save $150 million in selling, general and administrative costs. The cuts are the first phase of the larger cost-cutting plan that new CEO Hubert Joly announced at an investor and analyst meeting last November.

J.C. Penney experienced a seismic shift on corporate culture when CEO Ron Johnson took the helm of the company more than a year ago. The new guard didn't like J.C. Penney's old way of doing things at headquarters. Not one bit. Dana Mattioli at The Wall Street Journal spoke with J.C. Penney Chief Operating Officer Michael Kramer about the company's culture and the mass layoffs at the company's headquarters. He's one of the execs brought in by Johnson, who he'd previously worked with at Apple.

Barnes & Noble Founder and Chairman Leonard Riggio has notified the company's board of directors of his intentions to purchase the company's retail business. The process of evaluating a proposal and negotiation of any transaction will be overseen by a strategic committee of three independent directors: David G. Golden, David A. Wilson and Patricia L. Higgins, who is chair of the strategic committee.

Office Depot said Wednesday it will buy OfficeMax in an all-stock deal that would transform the office supply retail sector. Boca Raton, Fla.-based Office Depot and Naperville, Ill.-based OfficeMax said holders of OfficeMax shares will receive 2.69 shares of Office Depot for every OfficeMax share they own. That's equal to about $13.50 per share, based on Office Depot's $5.02 per share closing price Tuesday, giving the deal a total value of about $1.2 billion.

Zara has made it clear that it's not headed to Middle America, USA, anytime soon. "The United States is a graveyard of European retailers," the company said recently. "Everyone who has gone there has struggled." Uniqlo reiterated that sentiment, saying the Japanese company is more likely to open a second shop in San Francisco before heading to Los Angeles, and definitely before heading to Chicago. But now Topshop will cautiously go where other fast-fashion chains across either pond won't.

Shocking reports about Amazon.com's alleged treatment of workers is causing a scandal in Germany. The government threatened to cancel the licenses of firms contracted by Amazon to hire temp workers and provide security if the reports were accurate,...

Richard Schulze, founder of Best Buy Co., may abandon a buyout bid and instead line up investors to take a minority position in the electronics retailer, Reuters reported. Schulze informed the Best Buy board in August that he was interested...

Michaels Stores has named Chuck Rubin CEO and a member of the board of directors. Rubin, currently the president and CEO of Ulta Beauty, will assume his new roles after a brief period of transition, at which time Michaels will discontinue...