Business News Roundup, Oct. 30

Called Redditmade, the platform is designed to help Reddit users sell T-shirts to their peers in the forum’s different groups, such as lovers of books or fans of a specific sports franchise. The struggling consumer electronics retailer said Wednesday that Wilson will serve as chief revitalization officer, reporting to its board and CEO Joe Magnacca. RadioShack warned in September that it might need to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it struggles to compete with online retailers. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said Wednesday that it will spin off sports car maker Ferrari into a separate company, a move to unlock the luxury brand’s value and distinguish it from its mass-market parent. The spin-off is designed to raise money to support the newly merged carmaker’s plans to invest $61 billion over five years to compete with global giants Toyota and Volkswagen. “I think we are doing the right thing by giving Ferrari a proper, unique place in the capital markets to be evaluated and valued as a luxury automaker,” Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne told an analyst conference call. Fiat Chrysler’s other luxury brands, including Alfa Romeo and Maserati, will remain part of the parent company, and are a key part of Marchionne’s plans to focus production in Italy on higher-margin luxury cars. After a surge in last-minute online shopping, the companies failed to deliver an estimated 2 million packages as promised by Christmas Eve, according to tracking firm ShipMatrix. IBM will help clients use Twitter’s social networking to make business decisions, a deal that lets both companies harness data to find new sources of growth. IBM software, including its Watson artificial-intelligence technology, will be able to mine posts on Twitter for information about what a client’s customers are saying about its product or about trends in a market. Ginni Rometty, IBM’s chief executive officer, is betting on analytics software to help revenue expand as traditional hardware and consulting businesses slow.