Factory growth improves
WASHINGTON — American factories expanded at an unexpectedly fast pace in June, another sign of strength for U.S. industry.
But U.S. manufacturing will have to contend in coming months with uncertainty over trade and a strengthening dollar. The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchase managers, says its manufacturing index rose last month to 60.2. That’s the highest level since February and up from 58.7 in May.
Furniture chain to enter Houston
American Furniture Warehouse has purchased land in Katy and Webster for its entry into the Texas market.
Houston-based Baker Katz represented American Furniture Warehouse in the transactions.
American Furniture Warehouse will build a 498,700square-foot megastore on 29 acres at the northeast corner of Interstate 10 and Pin Oak Road in Katy. The store will have a 150,000-square-foot showroom and an attached 348,700 square feet of storage space.
The company also purchased 23 acres in Webster on the Gulf Freeway, just south of the NASA Bypass and Topgolf. The 355,000-square-foot facility will have a 147,000-square-foot showroom and 208,000 square feet of warehouse space.
Headquartered in Englewood, Colo., American Furniture Warehouse has 12 locations in Colorado and two in Arizona. The privately held company was founded in 1975.
Yelp issue divides California court
SAN FRANCISCO — A divided California Supreme Court has ruled that online review site Yelp.com cannot be ordered to remove posts against a San Francisco law firm that a judge had determined were defamatory.
The 4-3 ruling on Monday came in a closely watched case that internet companies warned could be used to silence all types of online speech.
An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is being considered, said the attorney for one of the lawyers involved in the case.
A bug unblocked blocked people
Facebook says more than 800,000 users may have been affected by a bug that unblocked people they previously had blocked.
The company said Monday that the bug was active between May 29 and June 5.
While the person who was unblocked by this bug could not see content users shared with their friends, they could have seen things that were posted to a wider audience. Facebook said the problem has been fixed.
It’s the second software bug in less than a month that the company has notified users about.
Atlantic Media selling Quartz
Atlantic Media’s business news site built for the digital age has turned into a good bit of business itself.
The site, Quartz, which Atlantic Media created in 2012, will be sold to the Japanese financial intelligence company Uzabase for between $75 million and $110 million, depending on its performance, according to a statement Monday.
“Uzabase’s ambition echoes our own — to build the leading business news brand of our century — and now we are in this mission together,” Kevin Delaney, Quartz’s editor-inchief and a founder of the site, wrote in a memo that was emailed to employees Monday.
Started with just 20 journalists, Quartz quickly found an audience by turning out a torrent of articles — some analytical, some quirky, most short — and charts geared toward techsavvy business readers. With an editorial staff steeped in technology, the site has experimented with new ideas, including making bots that give readers the news and integrating ads into its newsfeed.
Today, the company, which has its own bot studio, employs 215 people, including more than 100 journalists.