Mergers & Acquisitions

NBTY, a global manufacturer, marketer, distributor and retailer of vitamins and nutritional supplements, has named Steven Cahillane CEO.

A 25-year consumer goods industry veteran, Cahillane comes to NBTY from Coca-Cola, where he led the successful integration of Coca‐Cola Enterprises' North American bottling operation and drove significant market share gains as president of Coca-Cola Americas.
 

New York -- As analysts begin to speculate about the acquisition scenarios for Family Dollar – whether by Dollar Tree or Dollar General – one thing is clear: some store closures will occur.

According to a report by Wall Street Journal Online, a Dollar General takeover would close more stores than if Dollar Tree wins the bid. Dollar General said it is prepared to divest up to 700 of the combined company’s approximate 19,600 stores to satisfy antitrust regulators.
 

New York -- Dick’s Sporting Goods reported second quarter net income of $69.5 million, below expectations, compared to $84.2 million the prior year. Its results included a $20.4 million charge related to restructuring of the company’s golf business,

The retailer reported $1.7 billion in revenue, up 10.3% from the same period last year and in line with estimates. E-commerce sales increased to 6.3% of sales, from 5.6% of sales the prior year.

Boston -- Wayfair filed its paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday to raise as much as $350 million on the public market.

The Boston-based online homegoods retailer posted a loss last year of $15.5 million, and the loss was $51.4 million in the last six months. Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Citigroup are leading up the underwriting for the IPO, along with Allen & Co., Pacific Crest Securities, Piper Jaffray, Wells Fargo Securities, Canaccord Genuity, Cowen and Co., and Raymond James.

Online home and housewares retailer Wayfair.com is prepared to go public and has some of the biggest names on Wall Street lined up to sell its shares.

Wayfair.com, one of world’s largest online destinations for home furnishings and décor items, has grown sales rapidly in recently years, but true to form with other aspiring online retailers, its losses have increased as its spends more on marketing.

Goodlettsville, Tenn. -- The battle between the extreme discounters is heating up: Dollar General Corp. said Monday it has made an all-cash bid of $9.7 billion for Family Dollar, topping a deal Dollar Tree made last month. Dollar General is bidding $78.50 per Family Dollar share, which includes a $2.26 per share premium over Family Dollar’s closing price on Friday. The offer is $4 higher per share than the $8.5 billion deal with Dollar Tree.

New York -- Activist hedge fund Jana Partners revealed on Monday that it received an anonymous package detailing a PetSmart presentation around improving results over the next two quarters.

According to Jana in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, a cover letter accompanied the presentation, saying that PetSmart had “missed internal projections.” Jana said it sent the documents back to the company, asking the board to “promptly release such materials after redacting any such competitively sensitive information.”

Just a month and a half after Kroger announced plans to acquire e-commerce retailer Vitacost.com, the company completed the merger. According to Kroger, Vitacost.com's position in the nutrition and wellness products space, including its proprietary brands, complements its natural foods business and Simple Truth Organic and Simple Truth corporate brand offering.

Kroger purchased all outstanding shares of common stock of Vitacost.com for $8 per share in cash. The tender offer expired at 5 p.m., EDT, on August 15.