Mergers & Acquisitions

With the sale of its North American Fresh Bakery business now complete, Sara Lee now turns its focus toward the sale of EuroDough, its European chilled dough business.

Gayle G. Stratmann, vice president and general counsel of Energizer since March 2003, will retire in the first half of calendar 2012.

Unilever made two big announcements in one week: First, its pending sales of Mrs. Dash and other specialty Culver brands for $325 million, and second, an expanded brand offering in the U.K.

Walmart U.S. has delivered three consecutive months of positive same store sales. That means big plans for growth through 2013 even though operating expenditures will decrease significantly. New stores will add between 45 and 49 million square feet worldwide in the next fiscal year. The company also forecasted sales growth between 5 and 7 percent for fiscal year 2013.

The deal is valued at $680 million in cash, and includes brands such as Thomas & Friends, Barney, Bob the Builder, Fireman Sam and Angelina Ballerina.

Oracle is moving aggressively to offer customers a full range of Cloud Solutions including sales force automation, human resources, talent management, social networking, databases and Java as part of the Oracle Public Cloud.

The agreement is expected to broaden the reach of the Yogen Fruz Brand in U.S. markets.