Saving the Yule Season: Holiday Targets in Sight After Uptick at Retail

Stores across the country reported a much-needed lift in sales last week, bringing them on or near plan for the five-week holiday season.

Call it the holiday of the Web.

Billionaire Francois Pinault, who controls PPR and Gucci Group, hasn’t decided whether he will make a play for France’s Suez utilities business.

Louis Vuitton Malletier, the fashion and leather goods brand owned by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, has shed its stake in French leather goods business Le Tanneur.

The antitrust waiting period for the sale of Eddie Bauer to a firm owned by Sun Capital Partners and Golden Gate Capital ended Tuesday.

A brief look at some of the day’s stories.

The British takeover of New York media is by now a fairly timeworn tale.

Increased regulations and an emphasis on transparency in the cosmetics industry are spurring business at Laboratoires Peritesco.

Midsize vendors resolve to increase specialty store business, develop higher-end brands and increase speed to market.

While the British press may be giddily reporting that Kate Moss and Pete Doherty got hitched on a Thai beach on New Year’s Day, Moss’ spokesman insisted Tuesday that “no wedding, or any kind of ceremony” took place.

Like most avant-garde artists, Alicia Framis wants to change the world.

Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. named Barbara Kennedy president of dresses, a new post.

Slow GDP growth, weakness in the labor sector and modest holiday sales contributed to a 0.5 percent drop in the Credit Manager’s Index.

The countdown is on for the 2007 awards season and the stakes are high for designers who will dress the elite walking the red carpet.