Business news in brief

Some Kohl's to accept Amazon returns

MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. -- Kohl's, which is opening some in-store Amazon shops, will start accepting returns for the online retailer at some of its stores in Los Angeles and Chicago starting next month.

Kohl's Corp. said Tuesday that it will pack and ship eligible Amazon return items for free at the 82 stores offering the service. There will be designated parking spots near the Kohl's store entrances for those doing Amazon returns. While the service will allow Kohl's customers to skip their local post office for Amazon returns, it also gets them into Kohl's stores -- where they might then shop.

The department store had previously announced plans to open 1,000-square-foot Amazon areas in 10 of its stores in Chicago and Los Angeles that will sell Amazon Echos, Fire tablets and other gadgets. Shoppers can also have an Amazon employee come to their home and install a device or suggest smart-home products to buy. Best Buy recently launched a similar program, which sends its employees to customers' homes to recommend electronics.

Analysts have said that being partners with Amazon will give Kohl's a way to differentiate itself from other department stores and lure in shoppers looking to buy electronics. For Amazon, it gets its devices in front of more people to try them.

Earlier this year, the owner of Sears and Kmart said it would sell its Kenmore-branded appliances on Amazon.com for the first time.

-- The Associated Press

Post to buy Bob Evans Farms for $1.53B

ST. LOUIS -- Bob Evans Farms is being sold to Post in a deal worth about $1.53 billion, giving the cereal-maker a stronger presence in the grocery store through Bob Evans' valuable refrigerated sides business.

Bob Evans makes products such as refrigerated potato, pasta and frozen convenience food items under a number of brands other than Bob Evans, such as Owens, Country Creek and Pineland Farms. Bob Evans, founded in 1948, also has a food-service business that sells products including sausage, sausage gravy, breakfast sandwiches and side dishes. It sold its restaurant chain to Golden Gate Capital in April.

Packaged-food makers have struggled as Americans increasingly seek out nonprocessed foods. In August, Campbell Soup said that it expected sales to continue to decline over the next year partly because of that trend, but also because of access to ready-to-cook meal delivery services and the desire to put more fresh produce on the dinner plate.

Post Holdings Inc. -- whose cereals include Fruity Pebbles, Honey Bunches of Oats and others -- will pay $77 per Bob Evans share, a 5.6 percent premium to the company's Monday closing price of $72.93.

The boards of both companies have approved the sale, which is targeted to close in Post's second quarter next year. Bob Evans' shareholders must still sign off on the deal.

Shares of Bob Evans Farms Inc. jumped $4.48, or 6 percent, to close Tuesday at $77.41.

-- The Associated Press

Twitter touts efforts to block terror talk

SAN FRANCISCO -- Twitter Inc., under pressure from governments around the world to combat online extremism, said in a new report that improving automation tools are helping block accounts that promote terrorism and violence.

In the first half of the year, Twitter said it suspended nearly 300,000 accounts globally linked to terrorism. Of those, roughly 95 percent were identified by the company's spam-fighting automation tools. Meanwhile, Twitter said government data requests continued to increase, and that it provided authorities with data on roughly 3,900 accounts from January to June.

The increasing role of machines in fighting extremism is a function of necessity, with manually identifying violent material within the millions of messages sent every day an impossible task.

Twitter, along with Facebook Inc. and YouTube, are instead building automation tools that quickly spot troublesome content. Facebook has roughly 7,500 people who screen for troublesome videos and posts. It's also funded groups that produce anti-extremism content that's circulated on the social network.

-- Bloomberg News

American Airlines vows to match fares

FORT WORTH -- American Airlines Group Inc., the world's largest carrier, will "absolutely, positively" match discount fares at its major airport hubs, Chief Executive Officer Doug Parker said.

"There is no bigger pricing advantage you can give someone in our business than a fare advantage," Parker said in remarks at a conference in Fort Worth.

Big airlines such as American, United Continental Holdings Inc., and Delta Air Lines Inc. are competing against discounters with a new no-frills fare class called basic economy, which offers cheaper prices in exchange for fewer amenities. Parker said the competition was "reaching equilibrium."

American Airlines shares fell 2 percent to close Tuesday at $44.38, deepening declines after Parker's comments. A Standard & Poor's index of five major U.S. airlines dropped 0.7 percent, reversing an earlier gain.

-- Bloomberg News

Euro bills found flushed in Swiss toilets

GENEVA -- Swiss prosecutors are trying to figure out why someone apparently attempted to flush tens of thousands of euros down the toilet at a Geneva branch of UBS Group AG.

The first 500-euro bills were discovered several months ago in a bathroom close to a bank vault containing hundreds of safe deposit boxes, according to a report in the Geneva Tribune confirmed by the city prosecutor's office. A few days later, more banknotes turned up in toilets at three nearby restaurants, requiring plumbing repairs to unclog the pipes.

In all, police have extracted tens of thousands of euros in soiled bills, many of which appear to have been cut with scissors.

While destroying banknotes isn't a crime in Switzerland, "there must be something behind this story," said Henri Della Casa, a spokesman for the Geneva prosecutor's office. "That's why we started an investigation."

He declined to discuss the case further. UBS, formerly Union Bank of Switzerland, also declined to comment on the incident at its branch on the Rue de la Corraterie in downtown Geneva.

-- Bloomberg News

Business on 09/20/2017

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