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By EMILY MALTBY

First there was Black Friday, then Cyber Monday. Now, there’s the second annual Small Business Saturday, when consumers are urged to show support for local retailers by shopping “small” in exchange for a $25 credit provided by sponsor American Express Co. for purchases charged to the card.

But there’s a backlash brewing against this year’s well-hyped event, and some entrepreneurs—such as Sissy Blanchard, owner of Gourmet au Bay, a wine and gift shop in Bodega Bay, Calif.—say they won’t participate.

At issue: the merchants’ newly divided loyalty to a grass-roots movement supporting small businesses known as the 3/50 Project LLC.

The nearly three-year-old group’s mission is to encourage consumers to spend $50 monthly in total at three independent businesses. Based in Minneapolis, its supporters connect primarily through Facebook and other social media. It is funded almost entirely by contributions to its virtual “tip jar” and sales of coffee mugs and T-shirts with messages such as, “Saving the Brick and Mortars Our Nation Is Built On.”

Last year, the organization agreed to ally with American Express for the first Small Business Saturday, according to 3/50 founder Cinda Baxter, who became the official spokeswoman for Small Business Saturday. She declines to say how much she or the organization received from that arrangement.

She says American Express led her to believe it also would provide longer-term funding, though her 2010 contract with the credit-card issuer didn’t include any such agreement.

She says she began to reach out to American Express to discuss funding for a broader variety of small-business projects. But, she says, American Express showed little interest in funding joint projects, aside from Small Business Saturday.

“She did a great job. Her mission aligned nicely with Small Business Saturday,” says Rosa Alfonso, a vice president for public affairs with American Express. “We would have liked her involvement in 2011 as well, but we weren’t able to reach an agreement.”

Ms. Baxter says that after several attempts to negotiate funding for the 3/50 Project, she gave up. Late last summer, when she formally broke off her dealings with the issuer, she posted an essay on the Web, linking to the 3/50 site, setting out her version of the group’s brief relationship with American Express and subsequent breakup.

“They needed to date someone credible from within the circle of influence,” Ms. Baxter wrote, sharing her view of why American Express sought her out. “Someone well-liked by small business owners, with loads of positive press.… Someone highly visible in the pro-local movement who could introduce them to the family, then stand up to Mom and Pop in their defense.”

Her message resonated with a number of small business owners, some of whom already were wary of American Express. During the depth of the credit-crunch, several credit-card companies, including American Express, slashed or pulled lines of credit that the businesses relied on. Some business owners also regard its merchant fees, recently about 2.5%, as too high.

Now, some small-shop owners including California’s Ms. Blanchard are boycotting the Saturday event. “The reason I’m not participating is because it’s not affiliated with the 3/50 Project,” Ms. Blanchard says. For American Express, “it’s a monetary boon if they can get more people to use the card,” she adds. “But there’s been no reciprocal kindness back to the merchants. The 3/50 Project looks out for the interests of the merchants.”

Leah Shelhorn, owner of Studio 41, a gallery and gifts store in Benicia, Calif., came across Ms. Baxter’s essay and now has plans to hand out flyers promoting the 3/50 Project on Saturday. “I wish it had all worked out,” she says. “I wish it had been a happy marriage.”

More than 230 small-business advocacy groups nevertheless are supporting Small Business Saturday this year.

Ms. Alfonso, of American Express, says the issuer offers a number of free tools to help support and increase merchant sales. “It’s not about us. It’s about small businesses,” she says. Small retailers received an estimated 28% sales increase on American Express cards on the Saturday after Thanksgiving last year compared with a year earlier, she says.

Last year, about 10,000 small merchants used the card-issuer’s Facebook ads to promote themselves for the event, American Express says, and so far this year, about 15,000 used the ads. About 100,000 small merchants downloaded promotional signage from its Small Business Saturday website last year.

Lori Webster, owner of Webster’s Fine Stationers LLC in Altadena, Calif., says she was drawn to participate in last year’s event in part because “Cinda brought credibility to it.” She says she hopes to see a small boost in her store’s bottom line from this year’s event, as she did last year, though, “I tend to wince when it’s a small purchase like a greeting card and the customer whips out an American Express card.”

Meanwhile, the 3/50 Project continues with its own holiday promotion. The motto? “Keep the Cheer Here.”

Write to Emily Maltby at emily.maltby@wsj.com

By DIONNE SEARCEY

By now, many employees are uncomfortably aware that their every keystroke at work, from email on office computers to text messages on company phones, can be monitored legally by their employers.

What employees typically don’t expect is for the company to spy on them while on password-protected sites using nonwork computers. But even that privacy could be in jeopardy.

A case brewing in federal court in New Jersey pits bosses against two employees who were complaining about their workplace on an invite-only discussion group on MySpace.com, a social-networking site owned by News Corp., publisher of The Wall Street Journal. The case tests whether a supervisor who managed to log into the forum — and then fired employees who badmouthed supervisors and customers there — had the right to do so.

Photo Illustration by The Wall Street Journal

The case has some legal and privacy experts concerned that companies are intruding into areas that their employees had considered off limits.

“The question is whether employees have a right to privacy in their non-work-created communications with each other. And I would think the answer is that they do,” said Floyd Abrams, a First Amendment expert and partner at Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP in New York.

The legal landscape is murky. For the most part, employers don’t need a reason to fire nonunion workers. But state laws in California, New York and Connecticut protect employees who engage in lawful, off-duty activities from being fired or disciplined, according to a report prepared by attorneys at the firm Proskauer Rose LLP. While private conversations might be covered under those laws, none of the statutes specifically addresses social networking or blogging. Thus, privacy advocates expect to see more of these legal challenges.

In February, three police officers in Harrison, N.Y., were suspended after they allegedly made lewd remarks about the town mayor on a Facebook account. The officers mistakenly thought the remarks were protected with a password, but city officials viewed the page, said Harrison police chief David Hall. The remarks about Mayor Joan Walsh might have violated the officer’s code of conduct, he said.

Mr. Hall said the town board was considering firing the officers. The policemen have asked a federal judge in White Plains, N.Y., to limit the town of Harrison’s inquiry into the online postings, citing privacy concerns, said Donald Feerick, the officers’ attorney. Calls to Ms. Walsh weren’t returned.

The case in New Jersey centers on two employees of Houston’s restaurant in Hackensack, bartender Brian Pietrylo and waitress Doreen Marino, who in 2006 created and contributed to a forum about their workplace on MySpace.com. Mr. Pietrylo emailed invitations to co-workers, who then had to log in using a personal email address and a password.

“I just thought this would be a nice way to vent…without any eyes outside spying in on us. This group is entirely private,” Mr. Pietrylo wrote in his introduction to the forum, according to court filings.

On the forum, Mr. Pietrylo and Ms. Marino, who was his girlfriend, made fun of Houston’s decor and patrons, and made sexual jokes. They also made negative comments about their supervisors.

The supervisors were tipped off to the forum by Karen St. Jean, a restaurant hostess, who logged into her account at an after-hours gathering with a Houston’s manager to show him the site. They all had a laugh, Ms. St. Jean said in a court deposition, and she didn’t think any more about it.

But later, another supervisor called Ms. St. Jean into his office and asked her for her email and password to the forum. The login information was passed up the supervisory chain, where restaurant managers viewed the comments.

The following week, Mr. Pietrylo and Ms. Marino were fired. Houston’s managers have said in court filings that the pair’s online posts violated policies set out in an employee handbook, which include professionalism and a positive attitude. A lawyer for Hillstone Restaurant Group, which owns Houston’s, declined to comment.

In their lawsuit, Ms. Marino and Mr. Pietrylo claim that their managers illegally accessed their online communications in violation of federal wiretapping statutes and that the managers also violated their privacy under New Jersey law.

But the courts might not view online musings as private communication. “You can’t post something on the Internet and claim breach of privacy when someone sees it,” said Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute in Princeton, N.J.

Ms. St. Jean said in a deposition she feared she would be fired if she didn’t give up her password, a twist in the case that Mr. Maltby says could sway a jury against the company.

Labor and legal experts say the outcome of many employee privacy cases hinges on workers’ expectations of their privacy rights — particularly whether they have been given notice that they are subject to monitoring. In the Houston’s case, the workers had no idea their online activities outside of work could be monitored, says their attorney, Fred J. Pisani. A trial is set for June 9.

Write to Dionne Searcey at dionne.searcey@wsj.com

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A13

Por JESSICA E. VASCELLARO, de Cupertino, Califórnia

O diretor-presidente da Apple Inc., Tim Cook, quer que seu Mac se pareça mais com um iPhone.

Ele revelou ao The Wall Street Journal, numa entrevista na sede da empresa, uma nova versão do sistema operacional da Apple para o Macintosh que incorpora várias funções do software em que rodam os grandes sucessos móveis da companhia. Entre eles, o serviço de mensagens da Apple, aplicativos de avisos, centrais de jogos, recursos para compartilhar arquivos e integração com o iCloud, o serviço de armazenamento on-line da empresa — todos criados originalmente para o iPad e o iPhone, que usam o software conhecido como iOS.

Batizado de “Mountain Lion” — inglês para “Leão da Montanha” —, a nova versão do Mac OS X é o mais claro sinal da crença da Apple em que os mundos de aparelhos móveis, laptops e computadores de mesa estão destinados a convergir — e que a Apple quer ser o catalisador disso.

“Vemos que as pessoas estão apaixonadas por um monte de apps e funcionalidades aqui”, disse Cook, de 51 anos, apontando para seu iPhone. “Em todos os lugares em que isso fizer sentido, nós vamos transferir para o Mac.”

Cook disse que a Apple estava oferecendo uma versão inicial do programa para desenvolvedores ontem e vai começar a vendê-lo para o público no segundo semestre.

Essas iniciativas da Apple ocorrem num momento em que a competição mais acirrada entre fabricantes de equipamentos os está levando a competir também na área de software, tentando dar aos consumidores uma sensação de familiaridade, ao permitir que usem dispositivos diversos com os mesmos recursos bem conhecidos. Isso está levando a uma convergência entre diferentes categorias de dispositivos, que pode se ramificar por todo o setor de tecnologia.

Cook disse que já pensa nos dois sistemas operacionais da Apple, o iOS e o OS X “como um só, com incrementos de funcionalidade”. Ele disse que o laptop e o tablet continuarão a coexistir, mas não descartou a possibilidade de que as duas tecnologias venham a convergir ainda mais. Quando indagado se o iPhone, o iPad e o Mac poderiam rodar com os mesmos chips microprocessadores, ele disse: “Nós pensamos sobre tudo. Não fechamos a porta para nada”.

A equipe do OS X para o Mac já tinha começado a tomar emprestado recursos do iOS e, em julho passado, lançou a versão “Lion” do seu sistema operacional que incorporava recursos do iOS, tais como controles avançados por gestos — tocando o touchpad do Mac, e não a tela — e a capacidade de ver aplicativos de desktop como ícones dispostos em grade na tela, como no iPhone.

Agora, a Apple está indo muito mais longe, chegando a mudar o nomes de aplicativos desenvolvidos internamente para o Mac para torná-los iguais aos correspondentes do iPhone. Por exemplo, a Agenda do Mac vai se chamar “Contatos”. O iCal se chamará “Calendário”.

“Demos um passo lógico em relação ao que o usuário vai experimentar ao usar esses produtos, de modo que tudo faça sentido”, disse Phil Schiller, vice-presidente sênior da Apple para marketing mundial, em uma entrevista separada. “Isso é mais do que as pessoas esperam.”

Com o Mountain Lion, o usuário verá a mesma tela de avisos que rola no iPhone, passando o dedo no touchpad. O novo software tem vínculos mais profundos com outros produtos da Apple, como o iCloud, que a Apple está integrando em seus aplicativos e no processo de registrar um novo Mac. Um novo recurso de segurança chamado “gatekeeper”, ou “guardião”, permite ao usuário especificar quais aplicativos, ou tipos de aplicativos, podem ser instalados em seu computador, incluindo uma opção para instalar apenas aplicativos da loja Mac App, da Apple.

O novo software para o Mac também irá aceitar um recurso chamado Espelhamento AirPlay, que permite ao usuário ver o que está na tela do seu iPhone ou iPad e em uma tela de televisão ligada a um Apple TV, o aparelho da Apple para conectar a TV à internet. A tecnologia é altamente estratégica para a Apple, agora que ela pesquisa novas tecnologias de vídeo para a sala de estar. O AirPlay, que já está disponível para iPhone e iPad, encontrou oposição de empresas de comunicações, temerosas de que o programa vá canibalizar a TV tradicional. Schiller diz que não acredita que as empresas de televisão farão qualquer objeção a que os clientes usem o programa a partir dos seus Macs.

O Mountain Lion chega num momento em que o Mac tem ganhado ímpeto, mas ainda tem pouca participação de mercado.

A Apple vendeu 5,2 milhões de Macs no trimestre encerrado em dezembro, um recorde e 26% a mais que no mesmo trimestre de 2010. Mas os Mac representaram 5,4% das vendas mundiais de computadores pessoais no quarto trimestre, segundo a IDC, frente a 4,5% no mesmo período de 2010.

Os computadores têm dado uma contribuição relativamente pequena ao desempenho financeiro recorde da Apple. Enquanto o faturamento da companhia saltou 73% no trimestre encerrado em dezembro, o porcentual dele originado pelos Macs caiu de 20,3% para 14,2%.

Cook disse que o Mac continua sendo uma parte “incrivelmente importante” da empresa e que já está se beneficiando do sucesso do iPhone, particularmente na China, onde as vendas de Macs dobraram no ano passado. “Eles conhecem a Apple”, disse o executivo. “Então eles vão atrás e procuram o Mac.”

Embora a Apple aposte no efeito de sua aura, seus concorrentes estão tentando seguir sua abordagem. A Microsoft Corp. está lançando uma nova versão de seus sistema operacional Windows que tem uma nova interface capaz de receber comandos por toque e que lembra seu software para celulares.

“Eu não acho que o que a Microsoft faz pressione a Apple”, disse Cook, segundo quem a Apple está concentrada em fazer o melhor produto e a pressão na companhia é “autoinduzida”.

Cook não quis comentar sobre planos futuros para as máquinas Mac. Mas ele expressou orgulho no laptop MacBook Air. “O setor em geral está tentando copiar [o Air] de um jeito ou de outro, mas eles vão ver que não é tão fácil”, disse ele.

A youthful indiscretion haunts Jeffrey Hollender every time he visits Canada.

He gets detained for extra security screening because of an incident in 1978 where authorities arrested and deported the then 23-year-old American for operating an adult-education school in Toronto without a work permit. Yet the career setback—and the subsequent soul-searching—proved a springboard for his eventual success. He co-founded and ran Seventh Generation Inc., a leading maker of environmentally friendly household products based in Burlington, Vt.

Mr. Hollender is hardly unique. For Peter G. Peterson, the billionaire co-founder of Blackstone Group LP, a New York private-equity firm, it took an expulsion from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a stint as a department store employee to finally realize what he wanted to do. Myron E. Ullman III, chief executive of J.C. Penney Co., was a 30-year-old university business officer when he was involved in mishaps that landed his new boss in an emergency room twice in two weeks.

All three gleaned lessons from their early stumbles that helped them thrive later. Their experiences offer a road map to anyone discouraged by initial missteps. “Early setbacks represent a key developmental event that successful executives cite when they look back over their careers,” says Ellen Van Velsor, a senior fellow at the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, N.C. The center has studied the role of setbacks in future success for decades.

To rebound from early mistakes, you need time to reflect constructively, as Mr. Hollender did. The college dropout had begun his nonprofit Skills Exchange in 1977. Classes ranged from sushi preparation to poetry writing. He didn’t obtain a work permit because “I was totally obsessed with work” to obtain the permanent Canadian residency status required. Mr. Hollender never equated his deportation with failure. “It caused me to begin to re-examine what really matters,” he says. He spent months in contemplation while cutting trees on a cousin’s ginseng farm in Vermont.

The entrepreneur next created a New York venture called Network for Learning, with offbeat classes such as “The Art of Flirting.” This time, however, he aimed to make money. “If you are going to invest your time, passion and energy, you should do it as a for-profit business,” Mr. Hollender says. Network for Learning quickly grew, attracting 60,000 students and turning a profit by its second fiscal year. Mr. Hollender sold the business to a Warner Communications unit for more than $2 million in 1985. Four years later, Mr. Hollender and partner Alan Newman raised money for a failing mail-order catalog that peddled environmental products. They renamed it Seventh Generation, where Mr. Hollender, 55, now is executive chairman.

Mr. Peterson’s early setbacks persuaded him to set higher ethical standards and heed his gut instincts. M.I.T. kicked him out in fall 1944 for plagiarizing another student’s term paper. He believed he didn’t cheat because he had revised it and added much of his own information. The humiliating expulsion made him realize he should avoid “self-serving rationalizations about questionable behavior.” He instead asked himself: “What would a person I admire greatly think about this behavior?” That’s why “I have somehow managed to stay out of trouble ever since,” he continues.

After graduation from Northwestern University in 1947, the marketing major was hired as an assistant toy buyer for a department store in Portland, Ore. He quit four months later because he hated retailing. “I had made a serious mistake,” he says.

During a three-day drive to Chicago, where his fiancée was going to school, he says he kept thinking: “What [do] I really enjoy doing?” He concluded his keen analytical ability qualified him for market research. He joined a small market-research firm, earning $50 a week. The concern promoted the junior analyst to executive vice president within two years. He later was an adman at McCann-Erickson, CEO of electronics maker Bell & Howell Co., President Richard Nixon’s commerce secretary and head of Lehman Brothers.

Mr. Peterson co-launched Blackstone in 1985. He says he insisted the firm do no equity research or hostile takeovers because he felt those activities unethically conflicted with clients’ interests. Otherwise, “you weren’t dealing straight with these people,” he says. The decision reflected his post-M.I.T. belief “in the need for honesty and integrity,” he adds.

For Mr. Ullman, twin injuries suffered by his supervisor propelled him to perform better on the job. He was chief business officer for University of Cincinnati when Henry Winkler became acting president in summer 1977. Weeks later, the two men and their wives decided to drive together to a football game.

Mr. Ullman was standing by his wife when she slammed the car door on his boss’s hand. Mr. Winkler says the bad bruise incapacitated him for two weeks. The day they resumed their regular racketball game, Mr. Ullman hit Mr. Winkler—who had ducked behind him—with his racket and gave him a black eye. “I am not sure I can survive working with you,” Mr. Winkler recalls joking at the time.

“I have a lot to prove that I am not a risk,” Mr. Ullman replied anxiously. As a result, “there’s no question I worked my butt off,” he says. “I earned his respect for other than my ability to hurt him.”

Mr. Ullman, now 63, says his recovery efforts deepened his ties with his boss. Mr. Winkler often helped by taking the heat when Mr. Ullman needed more budget funds or persuading colleagues to assist him. This taught Mr. Ullman, who held top jobs at several retailers before taking command of Penney in 2004, a powerful leadership lesson: “If a boss focuses on making colleagues successful, they have a better chance of succeeding.”

Mr. Winkler says Mr. Ullman proved he “was first rate.” The young administrator soon earned a vice presidency, thanks to lobbying by his boss.

Mr. Winkler was among “the most important mentors in my career,” concludes Mr. Ullman.

Por ROGERIO JELMAYER

SÃO PAULO (Dow Jones)–La firma minorista farmacéutica Brazil Pharma SA anunció su segunda adquisición en menos de cuatro meses, en el marco de sus planes de expansión anunciados cuando realizó una oferta pública inicial.

Brazil Pharma, firma controlada por el banco de inversiones brasileño BTG Pactual, informó el lunes que acordó adquirir una participación del 70% en el competidor local Sant’ana S.A. Drogaria Farmacias por 347 millones de reales (US$260,5 millones).

En noviembre, la compañía anunció la adquisición de Grupo Big Ben por 453,6 millones de reales, y en junio, recaudó 414 millones de reales mediante una oferta pública inicial en la bolsa local.