Investors watching the ongoing Wal-Mart
The government has been looking into the massive retailer's relationships with companies Wal-Mart contracted with to clean floors in some stores. This has been one of the biggest PR challenges facing the company in recent months, and any steps taken toward disengaging with the DOJ should be welcomed by investors. (It's not all good news, however: A civil suit against the company remains pending, the outcome uncertain.)
Wal-Mart, as we've discussed before, has had a hard time staying out of the bad news file in recent months, as business and other media have jumped on opportunities to take the company to task. Microsoft
And sometimes you can strike back. Earlier this year we discussed Wal-Mart's efforts to retake spin control, and while the company may never regain the "feel-good American corporate dream" image it enjoyed, say, 10 years ago, it can at least shake some of its monkeys off its back. PR campaigns are one means of doing this; helping usher regulators politely out the door is another.
Fool contributor Dave Marino-Nachison doesn't own any of the companies in this story.