Mergers & Acquisitions

MCLEAN, Va. — Capital One Financial Corp.has reached an agreement to sell the portfolio of Best Buy private label and co-branded credit card accounts, with current loan balances of approximately $7 billion, to Citi. In addition, Capital One and Best Buy have agreed to end their contractual credit card relationship early.

Roswell, Ga. -- PGA Tour Superstore will open its second store on the West Coast, a 50,000-sq.ft, location in Irvine, Calif., later this year.

"We are excited to be expanding into Southern California, which encompasses one of the nation's most renowned golf areas in the country," said PGA Tour Superstore president and CEO Dick Sullivan.

With the addition of this store, the number of PGA Tour Superstores will increase nationwide to 17.

The second and third largest players in the office retail space could soon join forces. According to published reports,OfficeMax and Office Depot could announce a merger this week.

The rumors have gotten Wall Street buzzing as pre-market trading saw shares of Office Depot and OfficeMax up 28.5% and 20%, respectively.

McLean, Va. -- Capital One Financial Corp. said Tuesday that it will sell off its Best Buy portfolio of private-label and co-branded credit card accounts. Current loan balances total about $7 billion.

The pair is severing their ties earlier than expected – the break-even sale of the portfolio to Citi is expected to finalize in third quarter 2013.

New York -- Office Depot and OfficeMax are in talks to merge, according to reports by the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.

The retailers are discussing as potential stock swap that would result in a single company with nearly $18 billion in revenue, reports said. The combined company would be better positioned to take on Staples, Walmart and other competitors.

New York -- A Friday report by Bloomberg said that Office Depot is considering selling the remaining 50% of its Mexican unit to Grupo Gigante SAB, which currently owns the other half.

Citing unnamed sources, Bloomberg reported that Grupo Gigante is in talks with local banks to fund the acquisition of Office Depot de Mexico.
 

Brett Biggs, Walmart U.S. CFO, will share his views on the company’s performance during an upcoming Doing Business in Bentonville meeting.

Bigg’s is slated to speak at the event scheduled for 7 a.m., March 13 in Rogers, Ar., and could have some interesting things to say given the timing of the event. Walmart is due to report fourth quarter and full year results next week on February 21 and then on March 7 the company hosts a two day event in Orlando for store managers and suppliers where new initiatives tend to be unveiled.

North Bergen, N.J. -- The Vitamin Shoppe announced that it has closed on the previously announced purchase of Super Supplements, a specialty retailer of vitamins, minerals and supplements for approximately $50 million. The acquisition was funded with available cash. 

The transaction was structured as a purchase of Super Supplements' assets by a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Vitamin Shoppe. Super Supplements is headquartered in Seattle, Washington and operates 31 stores in the Pacific Northwest.