Arthur Frommer buys back travel book brand from Google, which acquired it with big plans last August.

Facebook readies for rumored phone event today.

Apple's futuristic campus project runs late and $2 billion overbudget.

BlackBerry turns mobile website into "test drive" of new Z10 phone, kills off BBM music service.

CVS and Rite-Aid target allergy season.

ConAgra boosts ad spending as commodity costs drop.

Detroit Electric launches Tesla rival.Continue reading...

Retail initiatives are trending as brands struggle and compete to adapt to an increasingly mobile-first consumer while keeping traffic coming to their physical stores. In result, stores are undergoing facelifts and creating brand stories to engage customers wherever they are.

CVS/pharmacy just launched an iPad app so customers can virtually explore the full range of its unique drugstore space and access services.

"As a pharmacy innovation company, CVS/pharmacy is committed to deploying new and emerging digital technologies that empower our customers on their path to better health," said Brian Tilzer, SVP, Chief Digital Officer for CVS/pharmacy in a press release.Continue reading...

With retailers on all sides of the aisle attempting to become one-stop-shopping and lifestyle platforms, traditional supermarket retailers are moving in that direction as well. Safeway—the megachain with a footprint stretching across much of the United States—has just offered a glimpse at its own attempt to become more things to more people, providing a peek at its new wellness platform slated to launch in the second quarter.

"Today, we're a supermarket company ... selling wellness services and wellness products," CEO Steve Burd told analysts, according to Drug Store News. But within 10 years, he said, Safeway would become a wellness company that happens to sell food.

The impulse for supermarket chains to expand the meaning and capabilities of their brands is understandable, in an environment where mass merchandisers such as Walmart and Target have impinged greatly on their CPG business, and even drug-store chains and dollar stores are selling more groceries. Now Walmart, for example, also is expanding its purview in healthcare and "wellness" as well, beyond the traditional in-store pharmacies long offered by mass discounters and supermarkets alike.Continue reading...

Disney and Netflix sign landmark agreement for the web streaming service.

GlaxoSmithKline begins assembling new global branding effort on its impact around the world.

Tesco bails out of Fresh & Easy venture in U.S.

AOL's Advertising.com group acquires Buysight.

Apple upgrades iTunes, secures USPTO patent for "retina."

Beer tax dispute heats up in Europe.

Blu Dot tests Twitter game of musical chairs.

BMW has US luxury auto sales crown in its sights.

Campbell Soup Company donates $500K to Salvation Army.

Citigroup announces 11,000 job cuts and $1B charge.Continue reading...

Facebook faces doubts by advertisers as it gears up for IPO roadshow.

Lifetime unveils new logo and tagline.

BlackBerry launches "Touch Awesomeness" campaign, test keyboardless version to challenge Apple.

Apple files for touch-based music-sharing patent.

CNN delivers lowest monthly ratings in a decade.

CVS succeeds in grabbing drugstore customers from Walgreens.

Chesapeake Energy board crimps CEO's power.Continue reading...

It sure sounded like Walmart wanted to dominate yet another part of the U.S. economy when it sent out an RFI, or request for information — as NPR reported last week — laying out its plan to become "the largest provider of primary health-care services in the nation."

But it turns out that the country's largest retailer only wants to make more money by expanding its in-store consumer health-care offering — not dominate the industry.

Rebutting NPR's report, Dr. John Agwunobi, SVP & President of Walmart U.S. Health & Wellness, issued this denial: "The RFI statement of intent is overwritten and incorrect. We are not building a national, integrated, low-cost primary care health care platform."

Al Norman calls it a corporate "Oops." Maybe it was just a case of muscle memory underlying Walmart's ambitions, which always tend toward being the world's biggest (or perceived as such). Just recently came word, for instance, that Walmart is expanding its financial services such as check-cashing to "unbanked" Americans.Continue reading...

Apple will introduce new iPhones next month, board member Al Gore confirms.

Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo are hit by ratings downgrades by Moody's.

Bill Gates tops 2011 Forbes 400 wealth ranker.

Facebook is introducing a 'listen with your friends' music app but faces challenges in digital entertainment.

Full Tilt Poker fires back at Justice Department.

Hulu invests in content even as it's for sale.

Netflix teams with Discovery for two-year deal.

News Corp. nixes a "Simpsons" channel but has big hopes for FX.Continue reading...

P&G has upped its F-commerce game with new Facebook stores for Tide, Gillette, Olay, Gain, CoverGirl, Luvs and Febreze, mixing social with detergents, cosmetics and diapers in a bid to fish where the fish are — and make it convenient for them to swim up to the checkout.

P&G's pilot store launched on Facebook last year, powered by Amazon, but now, the e-commerce functionality is being outsourced to PFSWeb's eStore, the CPG giant's independent online e-commerce site selling its branded products directly to consumers.

“Shop now” buttons on each brand page link to a retail page for e-commerce with a splash tab inviting fans to “Purchase on Facebook through these trusted retailers.”Continue reading...