By Amy Antenora

The Week in Review offers a snapshot of the most highly read stories of the week as seen on aftermarketNews. To access the complete stories, simply click on the highlighted links. If you missed reading one of our daily news emails, just click on the link that says "News Archives" at the bottom of the page to begin catching up on the latest industry news.

The majority of our top news stories on aftermarketNews this week focused on the distribution segment and the many changes taking place recently in the retail sector. Leading the most-read news stories this week was the announcement that the Federal Trade Commission has granted early termination of the waiting period under the Hart Scott Rodino Act for O’Reilly Automotive’s proposed acquisition of CSK. The early termination came just three weeks after the official announcement of the sale.

As readers keep a close watch on the progress of the acquisition, they also are keeping an eye on O’Reilly’s numbers. Another highly read article this week was O’Reilly’s first quarter sales report. O’Reilly reported softer sales of $646 million for the first quarter, due the current challenging market conditions. “However, even in the midst of these obstacles, we were able to increase gross profit to 44.6 percent of sales,” said Greg Henslee, CEO and co-president.

The week took a rather surprising turn when on Wednesday it was announced that Jeff Rachor had resigned as Pep Boys President and CEO, after just over one year in the post. The former Sonic Automotive exec is leaving the retail distribution segment to become a principal in an automotive dealership venture. Mike Odell, Pep Boys’ chief operating officer, has been named interim CEO, effective immediately.

While Rachor was only in the aftermarket a short time, this week we recognize several execs who have shown a true commitment to the industry. Nineteen individuals recently graduated from the University of the Aftermarket ’s Leadership 2.0 program, an intense and intellectually challenging two-week executive development and learning experience, deeply rooted in the theoretical and practical application of leadership principles in the automotive aftermarket. Participants in this year’s program represent a wide-array of aftermarket companies at all levels of the industry. They received 6.0 credits toward completion of their Automotive Aftermarket Professional (AAP) or Master Automotive Aftermarket Professional (MAAP) certifications by taking part in the program.

And speaking of celebrations, AMN readers were also interested to learn more about the tenth anniversary of Worldpac’s speedDIAL online catalog and fulfillment ordering software program. The program was first introduced in 1998, and was developed exclusively for independent automotive service centers. Today, WORLDPAC conducts more than 75 percent of its North American business through speedDIAL. To celebrate this milestone, the company is giving away a 10-year anniversary commemorative PING jacket every business day in April.

To view all of the news from the past week, simply click here to view our News Archives.