Future To Acquire Five Specialist Titles From Haymarket Media Group

Chico's FAS, Inc. reported holiday sales and updated its outlook for fiscal 2021 fourth quarter sales and earnings. Molly Langenstein, Chico's FAS Chief Executive Officer and President, and Patrick ("PJ") Guido, Chico's FAS Chief Financial Officer, will discuss progress on the Company's strategic plan and these results at the ICR Conference today at 3:30 PM ET. For the nine-week holiday period ending January 1, 2022, total net sales grew approximately 30% compared to the same period last year. Comparable sales for the nine-week holiday period grew approximately 31.5% over fiscal 2020. The Company has updated its fourth quarter outlook and expects fourth quarter net sales at the low end of the $495 million to $510 million range previously provided on November 30, 2021 and expects diluted earnings per share at the high end of the previously provided $0.00 to $0.05 range.

Amazon announced it has established a new Counterfeit Crimes Unit, dedicated to bringing counterfeiters that violate the law and Amazon’s policies by listing counterfeit products in its store to justice. Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit is a global, multi-disciplinary team composed of former federal prosecutors, experienced investigators, and data analysts, and will join Amazon’s extensive work to drive counterfeit to zero. Amazon’s first objective is to prevent a counterfeit from ever being listed in its store, and its comprehensive proactive anti-counterfeit programs have ensured that 99.9% of all Amazon products viewed by customers did not have a valid counterfeit complaint. In 2019, Amazon invested over $500 million and had more than 8,000 employees fighting fraud, including counterfeit. Amazon’s efforts have blocked over 6 billion suspected bad listings in 2019 and blocked over 2.5 million suspected bad actor accounts before they were able to make a single product available for sale.

Learning technology company HMH and NWEA, a not-for-profit, research and educational services organization serving K-12 students, announced today they have signed an agreement for HMH to acquire NWEA. Upon closing, NWEA will operate as a division of HMH, with its current offerings, including its flagship assessment—MAP Growth—remaining under the NWEA brand. NWEA assessment solutions will be integrated with HMH curriculum on HMH’s platform to create a combined offering that links interim assessment to instruction. HMH is a portfolio company of Veritas Capital, a private investment firm that focuses on companies that provide technology and technology-enabled solutions to government and commercial customers worldwide. By combining NWEA’s assessments with HMH’s curriculum, HMH is expected to deliver a holistic solution for educators that helps them understand how students are growing academically and what areas need the most focus to maximize that growth. Most importantly, this solution will turn insights from assessments into content recommendations that help teachers address student-specific skill gaps and advance student learning.