Wal-Mart arm buys clothing finder app
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s @WalmartLabs has purchased the mobile app Stylr for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition is @WalmartLabs' 13th in three years, though the first from New York's rising "Silicon Alley," the moniker for the Manhattan area with a concentration of Internet and new media companies.
Stylr, founded by Stanford University alumni Eytan Daniyalzade and Berk Atikoglu and funded by New York-based incubator Dreamit Ventures, provides shoppers a way to search for clothes in nearby stores. Wal-Mart will shut down the app within a week and use Stylr's technology for future mobile innovations, Wal-Mart spokesman Ravi Jariwala said.
With 80 percent of Wal-Mart shoppers under age 35 owning smartphones and more than half of smartphone owners using their devices in stores to assist with shopping, Stylr was a logical acquisition, Jariwala said.
-- Cyd King
J.B. Hunt honored for drug test efforts
J.B. Hunt Transport Inc. has seen its random positive rates from drug testing decline 84 percent since implementing hair testing in 2006.
Measures taken by the company to improve its rate have earned it recognition as the Institute for a Drug-Free Workplace's 2014 Company of the Year on Workplace-Substance Abuse Prevention. J.B. Hunt uses hair testing on new hires in addition to urinalysis. Currently, only urinalysis is recognized by the Transportation Department.
J.B. Hunt has pushed for the use of hair testing to improve highway safety. Hair testing has been proved in studies to be more effective at detecting drug use among job applicants.
The Institute for a Drug-Free Workplace, a nonprofit corporation, includes members from businesses and trade groups representing industries including petrochemical, manufacturing, high technology, construction, pharmaceutical, hospitality, retail and transportation.
-- Chris Bahn
State index up 1.32; Windstream gains
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, rose 1.32 to 346.35 Tuesday.
"The major market averages closed slightly higher as investors moved to the sidelines awaiting a Federal Reserve board policy announcement and monitoring the situations in Iraq and Ukraine," said Bob Williams, senior vice president and managing director of Delta Trust Investments Inc. in Little Rock.
Shares of USA Truck, Acxiom, Home BancShares and Bank of the Ozarks gained between 2 percent and 3 percent, Williams said.
Deltic Timber fell by just over 1 percent in active trading.
Windstream set a 52-week high, returning to a double-digit price for the first time since October 2012, Williams said.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 06/18/2014