MCM staff

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Holiday Sales Figures Paint Conflicting Picture

| MCM staff

Sales figures from the 2012 holiday shopping season paint a conflicting picture of the robustness of consumer spending and its impact on the economy. Retail analyst Dana Telsey discusses the holiday season on CBS This Morning.

Free Shipping Day Spurs Late-Season Online Spending Surge

| MCM staff

We typically do not see such heavy spending this late in the season, but the fact that Free Shipping Day occurred on a Monday, combined with the fact that so many retailers extended their promotions into the middle of the week — with guaranteed shipping by Christmas — helped deliver an encouraging late-season surge. The result has been a significant uptick in the season-to-date growth rate, which now stands at 16 percent.

Oracle Purchases Eloqua for $871 Million

| MCM staff

Oracle Corp has agreed to acquire Eloqua, Inc., a maker of marketing automation software, for approximately $871 million. The Eloqua deal builds upon Oracle’s previous acquisitions of Vitrue and RightNow.

ComScore Says Holiday Online Shopping Hits $35 Billion

| MCM staff

For the holiday season-to-date $35 billion has been spent online, marking a 13-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year. The most recent week achieved record-setting levels of online spending, eclipsing $7 billion in sales for the first time ever. Four individual days surpassed $1 billion in spending, led by Green Monday at $1.275 billion.