Mergers & Acquisitions

MINNEAPOLIS — Supervalu on Monday announced Robert Bly will join the company as president of Shoppers, a 56-store division in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C., market.

Bly is expected to begin his new role on Aug. 22 and will report to Chuck Elias, SVP retail operations. Bly replaces Tim Lowe, who recently accepted a new leadership role in Supervalu's merchandising organization.

Minneapolis -- Best Buy Co. has named Hubert Joly, the former chief executive of global hospitality company Carlson, as the chain's new CEO and president. Carlson, which operates such businesses as Radisson and T.G.I Friday's, announced Sunday that Joly resigned from that company.

Hubert Joly is the new CEO at Best Buy.

Best Buy named former food service and hospitality executive Hubert Joly as president and CEO even as uncertainty lingers regarding a possible leveraged buyout engineered by former chairman and founder Richard Schulze.

Joly joins Best Buy after serving since 2008 as CEO of Minneapolis-based Carlson, a global hospitality and travel company known for such brands as Radisson hotels and TGI Friday’s restaurants. From 2003 to 2007, he led Carlson’s travel division.

It may be the right thing to do long-term, but Walmart’s plans to slow growth in China, Mexico and Brazil didn’t sit well with investors this week.

The revelation that Walmart would add between 21 and 23 million square feet of space versus the previously planned addition of 30 to 33 million square feet will result in Walmart International spending between $4.6 billion and $5 billion compared to a previously budgeted amount of $5 billion to $5.5 billion.

Wayne, N.J. – Toys “R” Us opened its first stores in Beijing last weekend, marking its continued expansion across China.

New York -- According to multiple reports citing anonymous sources, Restoration Hardware chairman and co-CEO Gary Friedman has stepped down after an internal investigation into a relationship he had with a 26-year-old female employee.

Friedman was confronted with findings that he had had an intimate relationship with the employee, who has since left the company. To look into the matter, the board of directors formed a special investigative committee and brought in an outside law firm to conduct the inquiry.

Things are looking up for Sears Holdings. The company only lost $132 million during its second quarter.

Dallas -- A Thursday report by the Wall Street Journal said that Warburg Pincus and TPG, the private-equity owners of Neiman Marcus Group Inc., are looking for an exit.

The firms paid $5.1 billion for Neiman Marcus seven years ago; the company is currently valued, according to analysts, at about $4 billion.