Mergers & Acquisitions

Pickerington, Ohio -- Stark Enterprises acquires The Shoppes at Stonecreek in Pickerington, Ohio. The 45,000-sq.-ft. retail center is located east of Columbus and is currently 100% occupied. Featured tenants include Lifetime Fitness, Petland, Advanced Vapor, Lomonico’s and Roosters.

“This acquisition further expands our footprint outside of Northeast Ohio and is a prime opportunity for us to prove the transformational impact we have on our properties,” said Ezra Stark, COO for Stark Enterprises.

There are no sure things in business – not even a partnership with Starbucks.

In paperwork filed for a planned IPO, Square revealed that since launching an agreement to process back-end mobile transactions for Starbucks in October 2012 (the coffee chain did not adopt Square reader hardware), it has recorded $309.8 million in revenue but $380.4 million in processing costs.

One of the world’s largest C-store operators is searching for a new CFO as the company expands its reach in the southern United States with a deal to buy 18 convenience stores operating under the Texas Star brand.

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. announced that Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Raymond Paré has resigned. It also announced a deal to acquire 18 convenience stores in the Souhwest, which will be converted to the Circle K brand and will continue to sell Shell and CITGO-branded fuel. The deal is expected to close by next April.

One of the world’s largest C-store operators is searching for a new CFO as the company expands its reach in the southern United States with a deal to buy 18 convenience stores operating under the Texas Star brand.

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. announced that Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Raymond Paré has resigned. It also announced a deal to acquire 18 convenience stores in the Souhwest, which will be converted to the Circle K brand and will continue to sell Shell and CITGO-branded fuel. The deal is expected to close by next April.

The world’s largest retailer plans to grow sales by $45 billion to $60 billion in the next three years and spend $20 billion buying back its own shares.

The growth targets, stock buyback program and an $11 billion capital expenditure program, down from $12.4 billion this year, were announced Wednesday morning in New York at the retailer’s annual fall investor conference.

Whole Foods Market and a key technology partner are creating a new retail platform that the retailer promises will be unlike anything on the market.

In a partnership that Whole Foods said will “redefine retail management software,” the supermarket company is partnering with cloud-based business application provider Infor to develop a new enterprise platform called Infor Cloudsuite Retail. The retailer hopes to make a profit of the comprehensive, cloud-based retail suite by selling it to other retailers.

Staples is limiting the severance pay of top executives as the resolution of a deal with Office Depot draws near.

Staples announced that its board of directors has adopted a new policy stipulating that the company will not pay any severance benefits that exceed three times the sum of an executive’s base salary plus target annual cash incentive award, without seeking shareholder approval.

In addition, CEO Ron Sargent has elected to amend his severance agreement to align with the terms of the new policy.

Could American Apparel founder and ousted CEO Dov Charney thwart the chain’s Chapter 11 filing? "Any CEO who has built a company from scratch -- which has become a sizable globally known enterprise that is nearly synonymous with the CEO himself and his personality -- is going to be able to cause some sort of disruption in the bankruptcy court," said Matt Covington, a managing director at Conway MacKenzie, a financial consulting firm that specializes in bankruptcy transactions, in a report by the Los Angeles Times.