The Fortune 500 comes out just once a year, but the companies on it make headlines every day. Here then are today’s highlights of news and happenings coming from the biggest names in business.
By Shelley DuBois, reporter
WE’RE WATCHING YOU, but not fining you. Johnson & Johnson just agreed to let the Food and Drug Administration keep the company’s plants under close scrutiny, following a slew of recalls issued on products made at those locations. While Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) will have to retrain employees and suspend manufacturing at some plants, it ducked some of the hefty fines that other drug and healthcare companies have had to pay following recalls. [Wall Street Journal]
AIG BUYS MORTGAGE-BACKED SECURITIES BACK that it was forced to turn over to a Federal Reserve in 2008. AIG (AIG) offered $15.7 billion for those securities, although didn’t specify where it would get the funds to make the payment. [Bloomberg Businessweek]
BLOCKBUSTER WASN’T LIQUIDATED but put up for auction instead, after a heated back-and-forth between its creditors. Ultimately, a judge allowed Blockbuster (BLOAQ) to sell itself, with a group of senior bondholders launching the opening bid of $290 million. [New York Times]
AOL SHEDS STAFF as CEO Tim Armstrong keeps trying to restructure the company to bring it back to life. AOL (AOL) lost 900 employees globally, 200 of which are in the U.S. Armstrong said that while he isn’t planning on additional job cuts in the near future, he can’t guarantee they won’t happen. [Financial Times]
WAL-MART’S NEW WEB STRATEGY aims to combine online and in-store shopping. Customers will be able to shop on the internet, then pick up merchandise in stores a couple hours later. While the sales strategy isn’t new, Wal-Mart (WMT), because of its size and reach, will probably take it to another level. [New York Times]
MANAGEMENT IN MOTION at GM (GM). The latest: chief financial officer Chris Liddell resigned from his position. Liddell said that he felt confident in the work he did getting GM back on his feet, and was happy about his successor, 38-year-old Dan Ammann. [Fortune]
Correction: a previous version of this post indicated, incorrectly, that Blockbuster had already been sold.