Suzanne Kapner

Bracken Darrell is trying to engineer a turnaround at the parent company of Vans. Step one was figuring out where it went wrong.

Macy’s plans to lay off about 13% of its corporate staff in a bid to trim costs and redirect spending toward improving customers’ shopping experience.

New VF CEO Bracken Darrell is urging Vans employees to recapture the outsider mindset that many current and former employees say has slipped away as the brand has gone more mainstream. As one senior executive has told staff, “bring back the f— you attitude.”

Self-gifting soars, with half of U.S. adults single—and many others refusing to settle for dud presents.

The retailer will focus on upgrading its remaining locations and opening smaller versions of its namesake chain.

Spring is trying to apply that philosophy to a classic Wall Street brawl — fighting off investors pushing to control the 166-year-old retailing empire. Macy’s rejected the offer, but one of the investors—Arkhouse Management—has launched a proxy fight to overhaul the company’s board. Spring, who ascended to Macy’s top job Feb. 4 after serving as its president and CEO-elect for nearly a year, unveiled his vision for modernizing the department-store chain earlier this week.

Macy’s averted a fight for control of its board but added new directors who will help decide whether to accept a takeover bid it had previously resisted. Macy’s appointed two new independent directors, a move that ended a proxy fight with Arkhouse Management that was seeking to oust most of the 15-person board and to buy the company. The directors had previously been nominated by Arkhouse, which had launched a campaign for nine board seats earlier this year after the department-store chain rejected its takeover offer.

The Federal Trade Commission said the merger would give the combined firm too much power in the market for accessible luxury satchels.

The antitrust regulator says Tapestry’s purchase of Capri Holdings hurts competition among affordable luxury handbag sellers; Companies vow to defend merger.

CEO Richard Dickson is trying to make the clothing company cool again—one hoodie at a time.