Mergers & Acquisitions

Christopher Baldwin has been named president and COO at BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc., putting the former Hess Retail CEO in position to succeed Laura Sen as CEO of the 208 unit warehouse club chain.

Seattle – The flop of Amazon’s Fire smartphone device last year continues to have repercussions.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon has laid off dozens of employees who worked on developing Fire at its Lab126 innovation center in Silicon Valley.

GameStop Corp. grew sales and revenue in the second quarter, but it also took steps to expand its non-gaming business.

For the second quarter ended Aug. 1, the retailer’s net income rose 3% to $25.3 million from $24.6 million. Total global sales rose 2% to $1.76 billion from $1.73 billion, and consolidated global same-store sales increased 8.1% (10.8% in the U.S. and 1.8% internationally).

Grapevine, Texas – GameStop Corp. on Thursday posted a strong second quarter, with profit and revenue that topped analysts’ estimates.

The retailer’s net income rose 3% to $25.3 million from $24.6 million.

While sales at Chico’s appear to be improving, the specialty retailer's turnaround plan also includes selling off one of its divisions.

Fort Myers, Fla. – Chico’s FAS Inc. on Wednesday released better-than-expected second quarter sales and earnings and also announced it was selling off its Boston Proper specialty women’s apparel business.

Earlier this year, the retailer launched a turnaround plan that includes closing some 120 stores through February 2017, cutting jobs and reducing spending.

Livonia, Mich. -- Pet Supplies Plus is looking to capitalize on the $58 billion pet industry.

The company, the nation’s largest pet retail franchise, announced that, so far this year, it has 19 new locations in the pipeline. Newly signed agreements will bring the neighborhood pet stores to new and underserved markets including Nashville, Atlanta, Houston, Jacksonville and Denver.
 

As it awaits regulatory approval of its acquisition of Office Depot, Staples Inc. is focused on making its stores appealing to students with tech items on their back-to-school lists.

The retailer is offering exclusive student savings with a valid college student I.D. or verifiable .edu email address for online orders.

Atlanta -- The Home Depot announced it has completed its $1.625 billion acquisition of Interline Brands.

The home improvement giant has previously announced agreement to acquire Interline, a national distributor and direct marketer of broad-line maintenance, repair and operations products, on July 22, 2015.

Louisville, Ky. -- Appriss Inc., a provider of data, risk assessment and analytic solutions for government, health information and consumer industries, has acquired The Retail Equation, Irvine, California, a provider of predictive analytics for retail businesses. The Retail Equation will become the retail division of Appriss and will operate as a separate company within the Appriss corporate structure.