Dave & Buster's scraps IPO Dave & Buster's Entertainment Inc., operator of 59 company-owned dining and gaming stores, withdrew its plans for a U.S. initial public offering, citing market conditions. The company had sought to raise as much as $107.7 million selling 7.69 million shares of common stock, equivalent to a 28 percent stake, at $12 to $14 each, regulatory filings show. "While we received significant interest from potential investors, current market conditions are not optimal for an IPO at this time," CEO Steve King said.
Unilever looks to sell Skippy Unilever is looking for a buyer for its Skippy peanut butter brand, which may fetch $300 million to $400 million, as it pares its food business to focus on faster-growing health and beauty products, Bloomberg News reported. The company has hired Lazard Ltd. to help conduct the sale and started shopping the business this week, Bloomberg reported, citing anonymous sources. In the U.S. peanut butter market, Skippy is a distant second to J.M. Smucker Co.'s Jif.
Movie rentals at Toys 'R' Us Toys 'R' Us, which for years has done a big business selling videotapes and DVDs of children's movies, is launching a sales plan for the digital age, a website where parents can rent or purchase more than 4,000 kid-friendly movies and television shows. The website, ToysRUsMovies.com, went live Thursday, and the movies and television shows will initially be available for streaming and downloading on personal computers, Macs and Adobe Flash-enabled devices. Toys 'R' Us plans to expand availability to tablet devices, TVs and Blu-ray players later this year.
Jobless claims inch upward Initial claims for unemployment benefits rose slightly last week as the economy showed continued signs of modest job growth. There were 367,000 new jobless claims for the week ending Saturday, up from a revised 363,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said. The less-volatile four-week average remained at 375,000, a level that economists say is consistent with a moderate increase in new jobs. Analysts had expected about 370,000 jobless claims last week.
Factory orders sank in August Orders placed with U.S. factories fell in August by the most in more than three years, signaling that slowdowns in business investment and exports restrained the economic expansion. The 5.2 percent decrease in bookings was the biggest since January 2009 and followed a revised 2.6 percent increase in July, the Commerce Department said. The median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg News survey called for a decline of 5.9 percent. Demand for durable goods dropped 13.2 percent, the same as reported last week, while shipments of non-durables, which includes such things as petroleum and chemicals and often reflect swings in price, climbed 2.2 percent.
Starbucks: Square is on track Beginning in early November, Starbucks customers will be able to pay for their cup of coffee at 7,000 U.S. corporate-run stores using mobile-payment technology developed by San Francisco startup Square. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz joined Square founding CEO Jack Dorsey at a large gathering of store managers in Houston to say the rollout of their new partnership remains on track. Starbucks set the tech world abuzz in August when it announced it was investing $25 million in Square and adopting its mobile-payment technology with plans for a fall launch. As part of the deal, Seattle-based Starbucks said it would use Square to process all of its credit and debit transactions.
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