Wal-Mart forms panel on diversity
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is forming a panel of outside experts to advise top executives on promoting diversity in its work force.
The world’s largest retailer faces mounting pressure to change its business practices.
Wal-Mart, which also faces a class-action lawsuit alleging discrimination against female employees, named the first two members of the panel Monday. They are former Detroit mayor Dennis Archer, the first black president of the American Bar Association, and Latina civil rights activist Vilma Martinez.
The company expects to name one or two additional members, and the panel should start work soon, spokesman John Simley said.
The announcement came two days after the Democratic National Committee weighed in with a resolution criticizing “bare-knuckled competitive practices like those Wal-Mart reportedly follows” and urged big corporations to change those practices.
The DNC resolution contends that low-cost business models like Wal-Mart’s hurt the middle class by paying low wages, providing restrictive health insurance and pressuring manufacturers to move jobs overseas.
•Viacom Inc., the entertainment conglomerate that owns MTV and VH1, on Monday said it would buy an online video gaming company called Xfire Inc. for $102 million in cash.
Viacom said Xfire would be folded into its MTV Networks group, which also houses several other online outlets including Neopets, Parents Connect, GoCityKids.com, iFilm and GameTrailers.com.
Xfire has about 1 million active users and offers an online video gaming platform aimed at men 18-34 years old. It is supported by advertising.
Viacom split off from CBS Corp. at the beginning of this year.
•An Indian court has ruled that Indian whiskey manufacturers cannot use the words “Scot” or “Scotch” to describe their products, in compliance with World Trade Organization rules, a newspaper reported Monday.
The words “Scot” or “Scotch” identify whiskey produced in Scotland, and no Indian manufacturer can use it to promote or market its product, the Deccan Chronicle newspaper quoted Judge Madan B. Lokur of the Delhi High Court as saying.
The judgment was given on a lawsuit filed by the Scotch Whisky Association of the United Kingdom seeking to restrain Golden Bottling Limited, an Indian whiskey manufacturer, from using the name “Red Scot” to sell its whiskey.