Data breach brings ouster of Target CEO

NEW YORK » Target’s massive data breach has now cost the company’s CEO his job.

Target announced Monday that Chairman, President and CEO Gregg Steinhafel is out, nearly five months after the retailer disclosed the breach, which has hurt its reputation among customers and hammered its business.

Experts say his departure marks the first CEO of a major corporation to resign in the wake of a data breach and underscores how CEOs are now becoming more at risk in an era when such breaches have become common.

The nation’s third-largest retailer said Steinhafel, a 35-year veteran of the company and CEO since 2008, has agreed to step down, effective immediately. He also resigned from the board of directors.

Generics sap Pfizer’s quarterly profit

Despite sharply lower expenses and taxes, Pfizer Inc.’s first-quarter profit dropped 15 percent due to cheaper generic competition for multiple medicines and some promotion partnerships with other drugmakers ending.

The world’s second-biggest drugmaker missed Wall Street’s revenue expectations by $730 million but narrowly beat profit expectations. Its shares fell almost 3 percent in afternoon trading.

The New York-based company has seen its revenue shrink since 2011 as inexpensive copycat pills hurt sales of about 20 off-patent drugs that once brought in billions annually, particularly cholesterol fighter Lipitor, the top-selling drug of all time with peak revenue of nearly $13 billion.

According to Pfizer, "the vast majority" of sales declines from generic competition will be over by the end of 2015.

Berkshire to remain united, Buffett insists

OMAHA, Neb. » Warren Buffett remains confident in the long-term future of his company after spending the weekend with shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway.

He says critics who think it would be best to break apart Berkshire’s 80-odd subsidiaries to make them easier to manage are wrong. One of Berkshire’s key advantages is its ability to shift money between its subsidiaries or invest it elsewhere to generate the best returns.

The 83-year-old doesn’t intend to retire, but the conglomerate is planning for the day when he’s no longer at the helm.

Buffett said again Monday that all of the current CEO candidates are existing employees who understand the company’s culture. While his successor will do some things differently, Berkshire’s key principles won’t change.

Safety chief exits GM in recalls’ aftermath

DETROIT » Another General Motors engineering executive is retiring in the wake of the automaker’s mishandled recall of small cars. GM says Jim Federico elected to retire after 36 years with the company. Federico plans to work outside the auto industry.

Federico was in charge of vehicle performance and safety leading up to the company’s February recall of 2.6 million older-model small cars for defective ignition switches. He was also the chief engineer for global small cars starting in 2010, and may have known about ongoing internal investigations into the switches.

Amazon enables shopping via Twitter

NEW YORK » Amazon wants to make shopping online as easy as a tweet.

The online retailer is introducing a service that lets Twitter users add Amazon.com products to their carts without leaving the social media site.The service comes as Amazon seeks to make social media a bigger source of sales. Twitter also has been seeking new revenue streams beyond advertising services such as promoted tweets.

Under the program, users must link their Amazon.com account with their Twitter account. Then they need to add the hashtag #AmazonCart when replying to a tweet that has an Amazon product link. The product will then be automatically added to their shopping cart.

Dunkin plans to expand European presence

AMSTERDAM » The doughnut, that classic deep-fried American snack, is going forth to do battle with European national treats in their homelands: the Belgian waffle, the Austrian strudel and the Danish danish.

After beating a retreat in the 1990s, American restaurant chain Dunkin’ Donuts has been quietly building up its presence in Europe and now has 120 outlets, mostly in Germany but also in Russia, Spain, Bulgaria and, most recently, Britain.

Dunkin’ Donuts’ head of international development, Jeremy Vitaro, says that the company is now looking to open stores in Denmark, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands. Despite the weak European economy, it thinks customers have money to spend.

ON THE MOVE

Anthology Marketing Group has announced three appointments:

» Vanessa Skou as research executive. She has seven years of diverse marketing and advertising experience, including directing the marketing launch of a point-of-sale program by the American Kennel Club.

» Lei-Ann Field as a senior account executive. She has eight years of agency and in-house experience in media relations, event planning, promotions and social media management.

» Jeffrey Bonsato as a studio production artist. His expertise in design and specialized software applications is used to confirm the accuracy of design file standards in the final stages of development.

SHIP AHOY!
Today’s ship arrivals and departures

HONOLULU HARBOR