Fab.com plans to improve shipping even further by doubling its 50-person tech team in the next year in order to have more control over the supply chain, including hard-to-ship products, the company told Forbes in May.

FORBES: How Fab.com Aims To Tackle Its Shipping Woes

The world's largest retailer plans to pay about a billion dollars for control of a Chinese chain called Trust-Mart.

NPR: Wal-Mart Eyes Big Expansion in China

The chain of control will be geographic -- as it already is in Europe, which grew 29% in the first quarter.

FORBES: A shock to the system

In 1992 he became Russia's prime minister, and control of Gazprom was assumed by his deputy, Rem Vyakhirev, a chain-smoking Soviet-style bureaucrat, whose first name stood for Revolution, Engels, Marx.

FORBES: Energy Tsar

The first half of 2013 will be a time when self-assessed delivery, customer and consumer communication and angel experience in quality control and supply chain operations will become key topics.

FORBES: 2013: What's In Store For Crowdfunding And Angel Investors

He and his lieutenants pressed caution on their suppliers, spot-checked shipments and built a web of foreign subsidiaries to gain more control over the supply chain, according to former employees and business associates.

WSJ: How Fake Avastin Penetrated U.S. Doctors' Offices

But in 1996 he won control of Southam, Canada's largest chain, known for its loose management and its flabby, middle-of-the-road, publications.

ECONOMIST: Canada