Aug 12, 2016

Online artisan marketplace AHAlife has just acquired Kaufmann Mercantile , an e-commerce store that sells a wide range of products selected for craftsmanship. The partnership makes sense, since both brands focus on giving the customer insight into how each product was made, so they can connect with the makers from around the world who craft the merchandise. Both brands also focus on selling products that are of good, long-lasting quality. "When you purchase a hammer on Kaufmann, it will be the last hammer you ever buy," Shauna Mei , AHA's CEO tells Fast Company. Mei explains that Kaufmann will exist as a standalone website, since it already has a strong brand and a loyal base of consumers. But much of the backend systems will be intertwined, with a joint staff and inventory management system. This move will grow AHA's user base by 30%, resulting in over one million registered users. This is AHAlife's second acquisition in a year. In February, the company purchased Bezar, a site that also sold curated products made by creative entrepreneurs. In that case, Bezar was folded into AHA's website. "If we are really going to win at this, we want to take out potential competitors and become the market leader in this space," Mei says. "Joining forces and collaborating with like-minded companies makes a lot of sense for us. " ES It’s official: Gurbaksh Chahal is the biggest creep in Silicon Valley Today, Bloomberg published a story about Gurbaksh Chahal, the cofounder and CEO of Gravity4. You might remember him as the dude who got kicked out of his previous company, RadiumOne, in 2014, for domestic violence. On a security-camera video, he was caught kicking his girlfriend 117 times. Since his reputation was shot, Chahal decided to come up with an alter ego. Naturally, he decided to draw from literature. More specifically: Fifty Shades of Grey. He created an alter ego named Christian Gray, according to a half dozen people familiar with the situation. The character, who shares a very similar name with one from Fifty Shades of Grey, has his own LinkedIn page featuring a head shot of Josh Dallas, an actor who appears on the ABC fairytale drama Once Upon a Time. Chahal would email marketing professionals as Gray, and when he hooked a potential customer, the CEO would berate staff for being outsold by a fake person, said the people, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution. Two people said Chahal had at times used Gray's sales leads as an excuse to fire workers. For more insight into the mind of this bizarro brodude, who is described as "everything the public thinks is wrong with Silicon Valley", read the story here . ES Newsletter Get the latest Fast Company stories to your inbox daily. Send Someone pretending to be Charlie Sheen’s “Wall Street” character punked Ruby Tuesday earnings call You just have to imagine he was using an oversized cell phone when he made the call. Someone pretending to be "Buddy Fox," the name of Charlie Sheen's stockbroker character in the classic '80s movie Wall Street, called in to Ruby Tuesday's earnings call on Thursday afternoon. The prankster, who added to the illusion by claiming that he worked for Geneva Roth Holding Corp., the fictional shell company in the movie, prompted an uncomfortable pause when he asked about how the death of Harambe, the gorilla that was recently shot and killed in the Cincinnati Zoo, was impacting the restaurant chain's revenue. The operator soon lost the connection. The Wall Street Journal transcribed the call: Operator: Our next question comes from Buddy Fox with Geneva Roth Holding Corporation. 'Bud Fox': I just have one question. Do you think your revenue was negatively impacted by Harambe's death, and if yes, do you have any plans to mitigate it? Ruby Tuesday Chairman and CEO James J. Buettgen: Excuse me, can you repeat your question, please? Impacted by what? 'Bud Fox': By Harambe's death and if yes, do you have plans to mitigate it? [CONFUSED PAUSE] Merck forced to pay Gilead’s attorneys fees over “misconduct” in patent case Even the most compelling legal argument won't work if you play dirty during a trial. That's the lesson from the latest chapter in the long-running legal battle between pharma giants Gilead Sciences and Merck. Back in June, a federal judge found that Gilead didn't have to pay up to $200 million in damages for infringing on some of Merck's patents due to misconduct by Merck including lying under oath. Judge Beth Labson Freeman called out Merck for "systematic and outrageous deception in conjunction with unethical business practices and litigation misconduct," which including lying under oath at deposition and trial. Now, Freeman just ruled in Gilead's favor yet again , deciding that Merck needs to pay its competitor's attorney fees in the case. The lawsuit related to sofosbuvir, the active ingredient in Gilead's blockbuster hepatitis C drugs, which have been extremely successful at curing patients with the liver disease. MB New York allows hunters to wear pink to attract women to the sport Starting on July 21, the new law was designed to attract more women to hunting, Bill Gibson, the legislative VO for the New York State Council told the New York Times . Because women will do anything as long as they can wear pink. In Wisconsin, a similar ruling was criticized as pandering to gender stereotypes and demeaning to women. But in New York, the move was seen as sensible. While women are still in the minority as hunters, their rates of involvement have gone up to 11% from 7% a decade ago. Only young hunters and their mentors are mandated to wear bright colors, so this legislation is particularly targeting novices. Retailers like Legendary Whitetails and Cabelas have already started selling pink hunting outfits to capitalize on this new law. ES 08.12.16 | 9:19 am J.C. Penney: Not yet profitable, but losing less money The company posted a smaller loss in its second quarter fiscal year. The net loss is now $56 million, down from $117 million last year, according to Bloomberg . Same-store sales rose by 2.2%, which means that company is likely gaining market share. You might remember how the company brought in a new CEO from Apple , Ron Johnson's, to transform the store into an exciting shopping destination. His efforts backfired and were roundly described as a disaster . He's been replaced by Marvin Ellison, who has been working hard to turn the company around, focusing on nuts and bolts like ensuring the inventory is in stock and communicating with customer-facing employees. To ensure this growth continues, Ellison says the company will have more appliance sales, remodel stores and have more in-store Sephora locations. Meanwhile, Macy's, a major competitor, announced that it is closing 100 stores (14% of the total) in its own effort to turn things around. ES 08.12.16 | 9:00 am Morning intel: Simones win big at the Olympics  • Olympic roundup:  Simone Biles took home the gold for the women's all-around gymnastics event. Simone Manuel made history by scoring a gold medal in the 100-meter freestyle, becoming the first African-American woman to win a swimming event. Michael Phelps broke records by getting his 13th gold medal in an individual swimming event. • J.C. Penney decreased its net loss to $56 million in its quarterly earnings report today . Sales increased by 1.5% to $2.9 billion. • The Russian hackers that leaked the DNC's emails could have loftier ambitions to sway American politics, security experts told Bloomberg . • The Daily Beast has taken down a story that took a lot of flak from readers for including identifying details about a number of closeted gay Olympic athletes. PM 08.12.16 | 8:01 am South Korea is investigating Google for antitrust violations The country's antitrust regulator revealed on Friday that it is looking into whether Google broke antitrust regulations by violating South Korea's anti competition laws, reports Reuters . The country's Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) disclosed the investigation, but did not comment on the exact nature of the probe or give any indication as to what antitrust violations Google may have broken. Previously the KFTC cleared Goggle during an investigation in 2013 as to whether the company violated anti-competition laws by pre-loading Google's apps on Android smartphones. MG