Facebook goes offline: Social media giant launches magazine

Another week with double-digit gains in all but one category led to a 15.1% jump in unit sales of print books from the comparable period in 2019 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. The juvenile nonfiction segment had the biggest gain over the week ended Aug. 3, 2019, with units spiking 40%. The usual suspects were atop the category bestseller list in the week—Big Preschool Workbook was #1, selling nearly 33,000 copies, followed by Crystal Radke’s My First Learn-to-Write Workbook, which sold more than 28,000 copies. Last year at this time, Big Preschool Workbook sold nearly 14,000 copies. Print unit sales were up 18.9% over 2019 in the adult nonfiction category.

Costco Wholesale Corporation announced that Craig Jelinek has confirmed his intention to step down as Chief Executive Officer, effective January 1, 2024. The Board of Directors has elected Ron Vachris, President and Chief Operating Officer since February 2022, as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective January 1, 2024. Craig and Ron have worked hand in hand over the last twenty-one months in Ron's role as president and for many years before that. This is the culmination of the long-standing succession plan that Craig has discussed with the Board. Ron is a Costco veteran, with over forty years of service to the Company, starting as a forklift driver, and subsequently serving in every major role related to Costco's business operations and merchandising activities. "Costco has a very strong culture and a deep bench of management talent," said Craig Jelinek. "I have total confidence in Ron and feel that we are fortunate as a Company to have an executive of his caliber to succeed me."

S&P Global announced that it has entered into an agreement to sell its Engineering Solutions business to investment funds managed by KKR, a leading global investment firm and a longstanding customer of S&P Global, for $975 million in cash, subject to customary purchase price adjustments. S&P Global currently anticipates the divestiture to result in after-tax proceeds of approximately $750 million, which proceeds are expected to be used to fund share repurchases. The agreement follows S&P Global's announced intent in November 2022 to divest the business.