Finance & Capital Management

Minneapolis -- Best Buy on Wednesday announced major changes to its leadership organization. The company is removing the senior-most layer of the U.S. operation is being removed; resulting in what it called “a leaner structure intended to improve the company’s agility.”

New York -- Signet Jewelers Ltd. announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Ultra Stores, Inc. from Crystal Financial LLC. and its other stockholders for approximately $57 million in cash. Ultra operates stores primarily in outlet centers, as well as licensed jewelry departments.
   
Signet will not assume any debt in connection with the acquisition.
 

New York -- Wal-Mart Stores said on Wednesday that various staff groups involved in compliance and legal issues will soon all report to its general counsel, Reuters reported. The move comes as the retailer works on coordinating efforts after an alleged foreign bribery scandal.

In a memo sent by CEO Mike Duke, the retailer said that starting on Dec. 1, its compliance, ethics, investigations and legal units will become one organization under executive VP, general counsel and corporate secretary Jeff Gearhart.

New York  -- Jones Group Inc. reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by a rise in sales of shoes and jeans to U.S. department stores, which helped make up for a big  drop in business at its own stores.
  
Third-quarter revenue slipped 0.7% to $1.035 billion as sales at the company's U.S. stores were down 6.7%.
   

Milwaukee -- Mid-America Real Estate-Wisconsin announced the promotion of VPs Tony Colvin and Adam Dreier to principals.

Colvin joined Mid-America Real Estate as a broker associate in January 2001 and, too date, has brokered over 1.2 million sq. ft. of retail space for a total transaction value of over $186 million.  Dreier has been with Mid-America Real Estate since February 2002 as a broker associate.  To date, he has brokered over 1 million sq. ft. of retail space, for a total transaction value of over $212 million.

Fort Worth, Texas -- RadioShack Corp. reported Tuesday a wider-than-expected loss of $47 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with a profit of $300,000 for the same period last year. Sales dropped from $1.03 billion to $1.0 billion and same-store sales dropped 1.6%.

Minneapolis -- Target Corp. said Tuesday it will sell its $5.9 billion credit card portfolio to TD Bank Group.

The business will be sold for an amount equal to the gross value of the outstanding receivables at the time of closing, said Target; the portfolio currently has a gross value of about $5.9 billion.

TD Bank also agreed to a seven-year deal to underwrite, fund and own the retailer’s future credit card and Visa receivables in the U.S.