Mergers & Acquisitions

BELLEVUE, Wash. – Former Microsoft executive James S. Pinckney has joined Coinstar as its new corporate leader of strategy and operations, a newly created position.

The move comes a week and a half after the provider of automated retail solutions named J. Scott Di Valerio as its new CEO.

Pinckney has more than 25 years of international general management, strategy and sales experience from Lenovo, Microsoft Corp., The Sabre Group and Hitachi Data Systems Corp.

South Plainfield, N.J. -- National Retail & Development Corp. announced Tuesday that Dick’s Sporting Goods will anchor Hadley Center in South Plainfield, N.J., joining current anchors Target, Kohl’s, Regal Cinemas and Marshalls.
 
Dick’s will occupy 50,175 sq. ft. and plans to open in late summer 2013, which brings Hadley Center to 100% leased.

The 542,000-sq.-ft. Hadley Center is located in a 1.4 million-sq.-ft. mixed-use development, home to more than 120 companies.

Denver -- The Zall Co. said Wednesday that Marco’s Pizza will open a new restaurant in Denver, marking the ninth Colorado location for the chain.

The latest unit will join Which Wich, Noodles & Co. and T-Mobile at a retail project located between Gaylord and York Street on E. Colfax.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Meijer has appointed J. K. Symancyk as president, just one year after he was named COO for the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based retailer.

Meijer, a pioneer of the one-stop shopping concept, operates 199 supercenters and grocery stores throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky.

Target is relying on two new services providers to operate its mobile business following an end to its short-lived relationship with RadioShack.

PLANO, Texas — Former Procter & Gamble executive Joe Crafton has been named CEO of Crossmark, a leader in sales and marketing services in the consumer goods industry. Crafton, who served as president of Crossmark until his promotion, succeeds John Thompson, who has been CEO since 2010.

Paris -- French luxury group PPR’s Tuesday announcement that it has acquired 51% of British fashion brand Christopher Kane means that the luxury designer will soon have branded boutiques. The first is slated to open in London as early as 2014.

According to a report by Reuters, the deal is part of PPR's strategy to add to its luxury portfolio with small brands that have growth potential.

"We think it can become a sizeable business," Alexis Babeau, managing director of PPR's luxury division, told Reuters on Tuesday.

ATLANTA — Cloud-solutions developer Predictix has named John Simon as its new CEO.

Simon will be charged with helping accelerate growth as Predictix continues developing and delivering solutions to retail companies. The move comes on the heels of the partnership announced between Predictix and analytics-based consumer chain solutions developer Yomari.