Free shipping. Faster delivery. More options. Online shoppers are stepping up their demands, but satisfying them could drain retailers’ coffers. How retailers and their freight partners respond to the challenges—and opportunities—emerging in this changing landscape will spell the difference between success and failure in the future. E-commerce is exploding in the United States, enjoying a compound annual growth rate of 17% from 2000 through 2015 and reaching $343 billion in revenue for 2015. In that same time frame, e-commerce has...

Read more

Non-compete agreements have long been used by employers as an effective tool to protect their valuable trade secrets and confidential information. However, employers’ overuse of non-compete agreements and employers’ practice of requiring all of their employees to sign non-compete agreements recently has come under significant attack by federal and state governments. In July, Trade Secrets Watch discussed some of those recent attacks. Since July, there have been a number of additional efforts by government to prohibit the overuse of...

Read more

Antitrust issues and capital constraints are among obstacles to large deals, the ratings agency notes. Fitch Ratings entered the fracas over mergers among Europe's banks on Wednesday when it said that deals among the continent's mid-market players would be more likely than consolidation among larger firms. "Mergers and acquisitions among mid-tier EU banks are more likely than large-scale deals such as between Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, whose recent discussions were reported in the media," Fitch said. Fitch added, "The EU's competition authorities may...

Read more

Appraisal rights actions continue to be measures by which shareholder activists seek to generate value from public mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions. During the past few years, those actions have become more commonplace. They’ve served not only as a way for shareholders to increase deal value but also as a way to generate additional returns through potential arbitrage-like opportunities. Earlier...

Read more

CMBS market has come back to life after a month-long hiatus. Two single-borrower transactions and a conduit deal have priced, while four other deals wait in the wings. The seven deals total $5.9 billion, amounting to 15% of the $41.5 billion in CMBS deals to hit the market in 2016. Recent pricings include a single-borrower deal backed by a $900 million piece of a $1.2 billion loan against a 1.7 million-square-foot office building at 9 West 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan....

Read more

Bos Container USA is expending by adding two regional managers, one covering Northeastern and one the Midwest of the United States. Steve DelBene joined the BOS Container USA team as a Product Development Manger covering Northeastern United States from Virginia to Maine. Steve has worked in the Modular Building and Storage Industry for over 25 years.  While working at Williams Scotsman and Modspace,  Steve’s focus was delivering optimum customer service and strategic overall growth of the business. Steve is a New York raised local and...

Read more

Orrick today announced the creation of the first legal portal for the corporate direct lending community. The site (DirectLending) breaks new ground by offering fast, simple solutions to a wide variety of common issues that arise in direct lending transactions. The direct lending portal offers a number of key features. Among others, these include: An efficient tool for automatically generating draft legal term sheets and/or engagement letters for new deals by answering a brief online questionnaire; an app for determining...

Read more

With the increasing threat to organizations from data breaches, HR plays a critical role in helping prevent and minimize the risk from cyber theft. This podcast will address how to identify potential cyber security problems, workforce challenges in data protection, and the use of policies, training and employee education that are designed to protect private and sensitive data. Listen to the podcast here: Compliments of Littler - a member of the EACCNY

Read more

The hazy days of summer were definitely not lazy. Prestige Capital worked on a broad range of deals in a wide spectrum of industries that reflects the state of business in 2016. There was a huge uptick in the technology and construction industries. Both have invoices that are paid based on milestone or progress billings. In the 32-year history, Prestige has perfected systems to finance unusual types of receivables and even financed such esoteric deals as a celebrity chef who was paid in...

Read more

As employers are learning about the many trends and changes that are bringing pay equity issues to the fore, they are asking questions regarding what they can do to protect themselves from potential liability. This article addresses some of the most frequently asked questions regarding pay equity issues.  What laws provide protection against gender-based pay disparities? There are a number of state and federal laws, plus additional federal regulations, that govern pay equity. The major federal laws that prohibit pay discrimination in...

Read more