The Wall Street Journal - 20.09.2019

B2| Friday, September 20, 2019 *** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.**

INDEX TO BUSINESSES

These indexes cite notable references to most parent companies and businesspeople
in today’s edition. Articles on regional page inserts aren’t cited in these indexes.

A
Advanced Micro Devices
................................ B11
Adyen..........................B1
Airbnb....................B1,B5
Alibaba Group.............B4
Alphabet................B4,B5
Altria Group................B6
Amazon.com...............B1
American Financial
Group.........................B2
Andreessen Horrowitz
.....................................B1
Ant Financial Services
Group
.....................................B4
Apple...............B1,B4,B12
Aramco........................A1
AT&T..........................B12
B
Barclays.....................B10
Berkshire Hathaway...B4
Bitflyer Blockchain.....A8
C
Capri Holdings............B2
Checkout.com..............B1
Colt Defense...............B1
Concho Resources.......B2
D
Darden Restaurants...B2
Datadog.......................B4
Diamondback Energy..B2
Dick’s Sporting Goods
.....................................B1
Dollar General.............B2
E-F
Elliott Management..M3
Energy Transfer
Partners....................B6
Facebook................A6,B4
FedEx.................A11,B11

G

General Catalyst.........B1

General Motors.....A1,B3

GitHub.........................B1

Goldman Sachs Group

...................................B10

H

Huawei Technologies..B5

I

Iconiq Strategic

Partners....................B4

Index Ventures...........B4

Insys Therapeutics.....B6

J

JPMorgan Chase.......B10

Juul Labs.....................B6

K

Keurig Dr. Pepper.......B2

KeyBanc Capital

Markets.....................B4

L

Lyft..............................B5

M

Martin Marietta

Materials...................B2

Mazars USA................A6

Microsoft...................B11

Mitsubishi Estate.......A1

Moody’s Analytics......B3

Morgan Stanley..........B4

N

NeuroSpace.................A8

Nextbeat.....................A8

Nexteer Automotive...B3

Nova Chemicals..........B6

O-P

OpenView Venture

Partners....................B4

Palantir Technologies.B1

Papa John's

International.............B2

PayPal Holdings..........B4

PG&E...........................B3

Postmates...................B1

Purdue Pharma...........A1

Q

Qualcomm.................B11

R

Range Resources........B2

RealReal......................B1

Rivian Automotive.....B1

S

Sequoia Capital...........B1

Slack Technologies.....B5

SoftBank Group..........B4

Sotheby's International

Realty.......................M9

Spotify Technology

............................. B5,B12

Stripe...........................B1

Stripmatic Products...B3

T

TD Securities............B10

Tencent Holdings........B4

Twilio...........................B1

U

Uber Technologies......B5

Under Armour.............B2

United Auto Workers.B3

V

Visa..............................B4

Vistra Energy..............B2

W

Walmart......................B1

We...............................A2

Z

Zhejiang Satellite

Petrochemical...........B6

INDEX TO PEOPLE

BUSINESS & FINANCE

ing on other large companies

to sign the pledge.

Amazon’s climate pledge

comes one day before more

than 1,550 Amazon employees

threatened to walk out of

work if the company didn’t do

more to fight climate change.

The employees had pressed

the company to have zero car-

bon emissions by 2030, stop

providing its cloud-computing

services to fossil-fuel compa-

nies and to end donations to

lobbyists and politicians who

deny the existence of climate

change.

Earlier this year, Amazon

shareholders rejected an in-

vestor-led proposal that called

for the company to disclose

how its business could be dis-

rupted by climate change and

how it could reduce depen-

dence on fossil fuels.

Amazon had recommended

investors vote against the

measure, in part, because it

said it was already making

certain disclosures on the

topic.

The group of Amazon em-

ployees said on Twitter that

the company’s Thursday an-

nouncement was a win, but

said they still plan to walk on

Friday. “We’re thrilled at what

workers have achieved in un-

der a year. But we know it’s

not enough,” the group Ama-

zon Employees for Climate

Justice said in a tweet.

greenhouse-gas emissions reg-
ularly and implement strate-
gies to reduce carbon emis-
sions in line with the Paris
Agreement. A company being
carbon-neutral means having
no net release of carbon diox-
ide into the atmosphere by ei-
ther offsetting emissions
through actions such as plant-
ing trees or by eliminating
emissions altogether.
Amazon said it expects 80%
of its energy use to come from
renewable sources by 2024, up
from 40% now. It is working
toward its facilities being
100%-powered using renew-
able energy by 2030, helped in
part by wind and solar proj-
ects. “We’ve decided to use
our size and scale to make a
difference,” Mr. Bezos said in a
written statement, while call-

Continuedfromthepriorpage

Amazon

Aims to Cut

Emissions

A

Adler, Bill....................B3
Agarwal, Aditya..........B6
B

Barra, Mary.................A2
Barzideh, Ben............B11
Bezos, Jeff..................B1

C
Collins, Todd................B3
Collison, John..............B1
E

Ergen, Charlie...........B12

F
Falcone-Sorrell,
Cristiana...................M1
G

Gaybrick, Will.............B1
Goldberg, Gennadiy..B10

H

Hertzberg, Jill............M3

J

Junc, Viviana..............M3

K

Killoy, Chris.................B2

Klein, Sheldon.............B3

Kravetz, Jeff.............B11

L

Lavery, Michael...........B6

Lee, Gene....................B2

Lindberg, Greg..........B10

M

Meena, Satish.............B4

Montefusco, Robert..B11

P

Pride, Jason..............B11

R

Reece, Nick...............B11

Robinet, Michael.........B3

S

Sengupta, Caesar........B4

Simons, Thomas.......B11

Smith, Frederick.......B11

Sorrell, Martin...........M1

Spiegel, Evan............B12

Spielman, Adam.........B6

Suryadevara, Dhivya...A2

W

Wells, Carrie..............M2

Williams, Suzanne.....M2

Y

Yu, Richard..................B5

Z

Zuckerberg, Mark.......A6

Darden Restaurants Inc.

said sales rose in its latest

quarter as stronger results

from its flagship Olive Garden

and LongHorn Steakhouse

brands offset declines from its

smaller chains.

The Orlando-based restau-

rant operator said Thursday

that total first-quarter sales

grew 3.5% from a year earlier

to $2.13 billion, slightly below

what Wall Street analysts were

expecting, according to FactSet.

Sales at Olive garden, the

company’s largest brand with

867 locations, were up 3.6% to

$1.09 billion. Sales at Long-

Horn Steakhouse’s 514 loca-

tions rose nearly 5% from a

year earlier to $450.2 million.

Same-restaurant sales, or

sales at locations open at least

16 months, at Olive Garden

grew 2.2%, lifted by a more

than 2% price increase as traf-

fic fell 0.8%. Same-restaurant

sales at all Darden chains rose

0.9%, below what analysts were

expecting. The company added

a net 40 new restaurants for

the period that ended Aug. 25.

Shares of Darden closed

Thursday at $120.68, down

about 5%. The stock is up

roughly 21% this year and up

2.4% over the past 12 months,

according to FactSet.

Comparable sales at Darden’s

smaller causal chains, such as

Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, Yard

House and Bahama Breeze,

struggled and weighed on re-

sults.

“Comparable same-restau-

rant sales for the industry

continued to weaken during

the quarter as the industry

once again faced tougher

comparisons,” Chief Executive

Gene Lee said on a conference

call with analysts.

Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen,

which has 165 locations, saw

same-restaurant sales fall 5.4%

for the quarter. Mr. Lee attri-

buted the decline to reduced

marketing efforts and overall

industry softness in the quarter.

Comparable sales at Bahama

Breeze and Seasons 52 were

both down more than 4% and

Yard House was off nearly 2%.

“We’ve been reluctant to

really add a lot of marketing

costs to these businesses,” Mr.

Lee said. “I do think that we

have to think about how we’re

going to market in our smaller

brands and how do we adver-

tise those brands in different

channels and become more ef-

fective and compete more ef-

fectively.”

Casual dining companies

have struggled for years as

consumers have gravitated to-

ward healthier food and fast-

casual chains that offer fresh

food at lower prices and in

much less time than sit-down

restaurants.

Overall, the restaurant

chain reported profit of $170.6

million, or $1.37 a share, com-

pared with $166.2 million, or

$1.32 a share, a year ago. Ana-

lysts polled by FactSet were

expecting earnings of $1.36 a

share.

BYPATRICKTHOMAS

Darden Serves Up Higher Sales

Sales at the restaurant company’s largest brand, Olive Garden, were up 3.6% to $1.09 billion. Sales at LongHorn Steakhouse rose too.

RICHARD B. LEVINE/ZUMA PRESS

Mr. Trump said.
Sales of rifles climbed in
2015 and 2016, particularly
when polls showed that Hillary
Clinton was likely to win the
2016 election. However, sales
have since decreased as gun
buyers are unconcerned that
the Trump administration and
GOP-controlled Senate will en-
act meaningful gun reform.
Other gun makers have said
the semiautomatic rifle seg-
ment has been hurt by excess
supply. “We see a lot of down-
ward pressure on pric-
ing....there’s a lot of capacity
out there still in the AR world,”
said Sturm, Ruger & Co. CEO
Chris Killoy on an August earn-
ings call.
Colt filed for bankruptcy
protection in 2015, citing the
loss of key military business
and an overload of debt. It
emerged from chapter 11 the
following year.
—Zusha Elinson
contributed to this article.

Continuedfromthepriorpage

Colt Ends

Civilian

AR-15s

The semiautomatic weapon has been used in many of the deadliest mass shootings.

PATRICK FALLON/ZUMA PRESS

be paid off in bankruptcy, have

been negotiating with the Sears

estate but to no avail, Mr. Sara-

chek said. That’s why the group

finds that appointing a mediator

will help settle the issues “ami-

cably and expeditiously,” as well

as save the estate time and

money, rather than litigating, he

said. The creditors had re-

quested the mediation motion

be heard on Sept. 27, an hour

ahead of Sears’s chapter 11 plan

confirmation hearing. But the

judge decided to schedule the

mediation hearing on Oct. 23,

Mr. Sarachek told WSJ Pro

Bankruptcy.

Creditors have been express-

ing concerns that Sears’s estate

can’t cover the bills it ran up

during bankruptcy proceedings.

The estate doesn’t have the cash

to pay off a $180 million short-

fall in administrative claims, Mr.

Sarachek said in a court filing.

In order to assure adminis-

trative creditors can be paid, the

Sears estate is hoping to recover

money from ongoing litigation

with the retail chain’s new

owner over its deal to purchase

most of its assets, Mr. Sarachek

said

A group of Sears Holdings

Corp.’s creditors is looking to

bring in the mediators over con-

cerns that what remains of the

bankrupt retailer won’t be able

to pay its bills.

Sears’s administrative credi-

tors are asking Judge Robert

Drain of the U.S. Bankruptcy

Court in White Plains, N.Y., to or-

der representatives of the “old”

Sears, the new Sears — known

as Transform Holdco LLC — and

its creditors committee, along

with others with a stake in the

case, to mediation before a hear-

ing to confirm Sears’s proposed

chapter 11 liquidation plan.

The Sears bankruptcy case is

“teetering on the precipice of

success or failure,” said Joseph

E. Sarachek, the lawyer repre-

senting the creditors, in a filing

Wednesday.

Lawyers representing the

Sears estate, the unsecured

creditors committee and repre-

sentatives for the new Sears

didn’t immediately respond to a

request for comment.

The administrative creditors,

whose claims are first in line to

BYAISHAAL-MUSLIM

Sears Creditors Seek

Mediation Over Fees

Retirement Fund

Sets Climate Deals

The New York State Com-

mon Retirement Fund said 11

U.S. companies agreed to

changes in their climate policies

and practices, as the third-larg-

est public pension fund in the

U.S. pushes for environmental,

social and governance improve-

ments within its portfolio.

New York Comptroller

Thomas DiNapoli, the retirement

fund’s trustee, said the fund filed

shareholder proposals with 15

companies seeking a variety of

changes and reached agree-

ments with 11 of the companies.

Among the changes, the

fund said utility company Vistra

Energy Corp., which it called one

of the largest greenhouse-gas

emitters in its public equity port-

folio, agreed to set targets for

reducing those emissions.

The fund said Dollar General

Corp., Keurig Dr Pepper Inc., Ca-

pri Holdings Ltd. and Under Ar-

mour Inc. agreed to set targets

for increased energy efficiency

and increased use of renewable

energy. Energy companies Con-

cho Resources Inc., Range Re-

sources Inc. and Diamondback

Energy Inc. agreed to assess

and disclose the business impact

of regulatory efforts to limit cli-

mate change.

Aggregates producer Martin

Marietta Materials Inc. agreed

to assess and report on risks

and opportunities available in

the global transition to a lower

carbon economy. And American

Financial Group Inc. and Papa

John’s International Inc. agreed

to produce sustainability reports

that include plans for addressing

climate change’s impact on their

businesses.

—Colin Kellaher

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wsj_20190920_b002_p2jw263000_5_b00200_1____xa2019.crop.pdf 1 20-Sep-19 06:14:11