Mergers & Acquisitions

PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- Hasbro announced that it has signed a strategic development agreement with Jagex Limited to jointly create a new online game based on the Transformers brand. Under the agreement, the two companies are slated to launch the Transformers online game in 2012 in North America, Latin America, Europe, New Zealand and Australia.

Ann Arbor, Mich. -- Borders Group is expected to announce that another 75 stores will be closed.

Mike Edwards, president, in a conference call said that the additional store closings would come from a group of 140 "bubble stores" that had already been identified for possible closings.

The bookseller previously said it would close 200 stores when it announced it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Feb. 16. At the time, the retailer said another 75 could be closed. The new round of stores has not yet been identified.

Tarrytown, N.Y.-based DLC Management Corp. has launched the redevelopment of Wing Park Shopping Center in Elgin, Ill.

DLC has pre-leased the redevelopment to a pair of anchor tenants: Walgreens has signed a 75-year lease for a 14,820-sq.-ft. prototypical store with drive-through that will be built to suit, and the existing Family Dollar will be relocating and expanding into an 8,400-sq.-ft. space. The overall redevelopment is 80% pre-leased.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens has expanded Joseph Magnacca's role at the drug store chain by appointing him president of daily living products and solutions.

New York City -- A Manhattan bankruptcy judge on Thursday has cleared the path for Blockbuster to sell itself to a group of hedge funds, preventing the movie rental chain from having to liquidate its assets.

Judge Burton R. Lifland has approved procedures for the auction of Blockbuster, with a $290 million initial offer from a group of senior bondholders led by hedge fund Monarch Alternative Capital.
 

CITY OF COMMERCE, Calif. — First it was Family Dollar, now 99 Cents Only Stores finds itself in buyout talks, as investors are seeing the value in discount store chains.

The company has received a proposal to take the company private from the company's founding family and investment firm Leonard Green & Partners LP for $19.09 per share, the Associated Press reported.

Completion of a previously announced acquisition combined with organic growth will result in the addition of 168 stores to Asda’s existing 386 units and push Walmart’s U.K. division past the 500-unit mark.

City of Commerce, Calif. — Discount store retailer 99 Cents Only Stores has received a proposal to take the company private from the company's founding family and investment firm Leonard Green & Partners LP for $19.09 per share, the Associated Press reported.

The offer would value the company at about $1.3 billion. According to 99 Cents, the purchasers would include the Schiffer-Gold family, which owns about 33% of its outstanding stock. David Gold is company founder and chairman, and his son-in-law Eric Schiffer is CEO.