NEWS IN BRIEF

Wal-Mart motion

gets hearing date

BENTONVILLE - A Benton County circuit judge has set an April trial date for a case in which Wal-Mart Stores Inc. filed a temporary restraining order to keep anti-Wal-Mart groups from protesting on company property, including stores and the company’s home office in Bentonville.

Until then, the defendants - the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, the Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart) and others affiliated or funded by the union group - will have to adhere to the court’s order. Benton County Circuit Judge John Scott, with agreement from both parties, set the hearing for April 7-10.

A hearing on the order was originally scheduled for Friday, the same day as the Wal-Mart shareholders’ meeting.

The temporary restraining order in Benton County was filed June 3 before the annual shareholders’ meeting in anticipation of the anti-Wal-Mart groups’ plans to demonstrate.

• Cyd KingNickelodeon exec to lead state firm

Bill Sussman, a former executive at Nickelodeon, is the new president and chief executive officer of Bentonville-based marketing company Collective Bias.

He replaces co-founder John Andrews, who started the company in 2009 with Amy Callahan, the company’s chief operating officer, according to a news release Tuesday.

Sussman was the vice president of retail development and marketing at Nickelodeon and has experience in digital marketing, retail and media.

Collective Bias, a marketing operation that focuses on social-media networks, completed a $10.5 million round of Series A investment in April. Updata Partners, a Washington, D.C.-based growth equity firm focusing on technology that manages nearly $500 million, was the major investor.

Japan news leads to state-index drop

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, declined 3.50 to 278.39 Tuesday.

“The major averages ended lower on the session as investors responded with caution to the Bank of Japan’s uneventful monetary policy meeting,” said Bob Williams, senior vice president and manging director of Delta Trust Investments Inc. in Little Rock.

Volume for the index was 22.6 million shares, compared with average daily volume of 21.4 million shares.

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

• John Magsam