Vente-Privee, the French high end e-commerce company, is closing its US operations by the end of 2014. Vente-Privee launched in the US in 2012 in partnership with American Express, with each side investing $20 million to the venture. At this time, Vente-Privee expected American Express to be a ‘passive investor’ while American Express wanted to help manage the business, so a split was always imminent. Dan Schulman, AMEX's president of Enterprise Growth, was the only one at the credit card … [Read more...]