Finance & Capital Management

By Christine Rivers

New York -- Best Buy’s founder and former chairman Richard Schulze is not expected to present a buyout or other proposal to the company's board anytime soon, Reuters reported, citing a person familiar to the situation.

Schulze owns more than 20% of the company’s shares. He abruptly resigned from the Best Buy board last June and said he was exploring options for his ownership stake. The company’s shares have risen lately on speculation that Schulze close to presenting a buyout offer.

New York -- Disney Store was honored as Innovator of the Year at the 2012 Oracle Retail Excellence Awards. The awards were announced at the annual Oracle Retail CrossTalk event, held June 26-28, at Swissôtel, Chicago.

Other Oracle award recipients included Urban Outfitters, in the category of “Outstanding Achievement in Customer Experience,” and Abercrombie & Fitch, in the category of “Outstanding Achievement in Business Performance.”

By Robert Gordman, president, The Gordman Group

(Editor’s  Note: Retail consultant Bob Gordman offers some interesting insights into what he calls “two of the most dramatically opposite” retail case studies in recent years: lululemon athletica and J.C. Penney Co.)

Union, N.J. -- Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. announced that its tender offer for the outstanding shares of common stock of Cost Plus was successful.

The company said Friday that about 20.8 million shares representing about 92% of Cost Plus' outstanding stock were tendered. The company currently has approximately 22.5 million outstanding shares, according to FactSet.

Cost Plus will become a Bed Bath & Beyond subsidiary and will stop trading on the Nasdaq the first business day after the deal closes.

New York -- U.K. retailing giant Tesco PLC could give up its American supermarket venture, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, if the chain continues to disappoint and not make a profit, RetailWeek and other British news organizations reported.

In remarks at the company’s annual meeting on Friday, Tesco CEO Philip Clarke said: “If we see there is no chance of success, we’ll do as we’ve just done in Japan,” referring to Tesco’s deal this month to exit that market.

Family Dollar’s third quarter results were not as good as expected, but only marginally so, and the company’s growth strategy and potential to steal traffic from Walmart remain intact.

NEW YORK — New York & Company, a specialty apparel chain with 541 retail stores in operation as of May 17, has named Laura Weil as EVP, COO, effective immediately. Weil, an executive consultant of New York & Company since Feb. 1, will continue to report to Greg Scott, CEO, and lead the company’s planning and allocation, sourcing, product life management, real estate, and information technology areas.

BEAVERTON, Ore. — Nike reported that fourth quarter revenues rose 12%t, or 14% on a currency neutral basis, to $6.5 billion, the largest revenue quarter in the company's history. This was a result of higher revenues across every Nke brand geography, key category and product type.

ABILENE, Kan. — A new era has begun at Duckwall-ALCO Stores, as the company's shareholders have approved the company's name change to ALCO. The change was approved at the company's annual shareholders' meeting on June 27. ALCO Stores also plans to change its ticker symbol on NASDAQ to "ALCS." Both the name change and the change in ticker symbol will be effective as of July 6.