NEWS IN BRIEF

— Heads of WalmartLabs to leave, take time off

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

said the co-heads of its Silicon Valley innovation group, WalmartLabs, are leaving the company.

Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman, who run the 200-person unit in San Bruno, Calif., will leave and take time off from the industry, the Bentonvillebased company said in an e-mailed statement late Thursday.

Harinarayan and Rajaraman joined Wal-Mart last year when the retailer bought their company, Kosmix, and used it as the foundation for WalmartLabs, using social-media expertise to advance the e-commerce business. As Wal-Mart has tried to build up its online operations it has made management changes as executives have departed.

“It’s too bad because they are smart guys,” Bryan Gildenberg, an analyst with London-based research firm Kantar Retail, said of the departures.

Wal-Mart has been trying to bolster its Walmart.

com online operation and has had several changes in the senior management of the business in the past year. The company generates less than 2 percent of sales from its online business, according to an estimate from Kantar Retail.

Fixed-up Fayetteville hotel to open Sept. 14

The newly renovated Chancellor Hotel in downtown Fayetteville, formerly the Cosmopolitan, will open Sept. 14, according to the owners.

Advance bookings for the first four weeks are at 80 percent occupancy, according to a news release.

Renovations included replacement and updating of mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems.

The hotel includes a 14,000-square-foot conference center and features 16 suites and 191 sleeping rooms.

Renovation of the hotel is a joint venture of Bedrock Commercial Partners, owned by the Sam Alley family of Little Rock, and Dawn Properties of Hattiesburg, Miss., headed by President Ike Thrash.

Prima Hospitality LLC of Tubac, Ariz., owned by Richard Dunkelberger, will operate the hotel, which in the past also has operated under the Hilton and Radisson banners.

Led by Deltic Timber, state index rises 1.89

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, rose 1.89 to 219.96 on Friday.

Twelve stocks advanced and four declined.

Deltic Timber gained 4 percent in heavy trading, while Dillard’s lost 1.2 percent on average volume.

For the week, winners and losers were evenly divided.

Acxiom added 6.5 percent for the week, and America’s Car-Mart lost 4.9 percent.

Volume on Friday was 35.9 million shares; the average is 28.1 million.

The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.

Business, Pages 23 on 06/23/2012

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