Mergers & Acquisitions

Matthews, N.C. – Howard Levine, CEO of Family Dollar Stores Inc., intends to reduce his holdings of company stock for the second time in a month. In an SEC filing, Levine said he will sell up to two million shares of Family Dollar stock in an effort to diversify his portfolio.

In February 2015, Levine sold about 1.77 million shares of Family Dollar stock for $134.5 million. Family Dollar is in the process of being acquired by Dollar Tree Inc.

Shrewsbury, N.J. -- Cost Plus World Market, a division of Bed, Bath & Beyond, has secured a new 15,000-sq.-ft. space at 490 Broad Street, Shrewsbury, New Jersey. It is the retailer’s second store in the New Jersey area (Monmouth County), having opened its first Northeast store in July 2014 at 530 W. Mt. Pleasant Avenue in Livingston, New Jersey (Essex County).  

Costco has a new credit card partner for its stores, and it’s a brand name that shoppers may already be very familiar with.

The retailer has entered into a new co-brand credit card program agreement with Citi and an acceptance and co-brand incentive agreement with Visa.

San Francisco  -- Gap Inc. is looking to add a little pink magic to its product design — and is bringing back a company veteran to do it. The retailer has named Wendi Goldman, creator of Victoria’s Secret “Pink” marketing/merchandising campaign, as executive VP of product design and development, effective March 16.

GameStop is trying to boost the number of its stores by bidding on 163 leases from RadioShack Corp, according to Bloomberg.

The news service reports that Spring Communications, the wireless unit of GameStop, submitted and won a significant bid for the leases.

Chicago -- JLL announced the expansion of its retail team with the addition of Bill Moston. Moston joins JLL as a senior VP, National Retail Development, and brings nearly 30 years of experience to JLL. He will be based out of the firm’s Chicago office.

In his new role, Moston will be responsible for advising JLL’s clients and executing on ground-up retail projects, redevelopments and renovations across the United States, as well as managing anchor store negotiations and tenant coordination.

Chicago – Charles Talbot, CFO of food service retailer Potbelly Corp., is leaving the company for a position outside the restaurant industry. Talbot will continue to serve as Potbelly's CFO while an external search is underway, until his departure on March 27.

New York – A state appeals court in New York has revived two claims Macy’s Inc. made against J.C. Penney Co. Inc. in a long-running dispute between the two department store chains about who has the right to sell Martha Stewart Living home products.   

 According to Reuters, in a unanimous decision, judges in the Manhattan Appellate Division ruled that Penney breached confidentiality provisions of Macy’s contract with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and Penney’s actions amounted to unfair competition.