Mergers & Acquisitions

The Children's Place has announced that Lou Lipschitz, a member of its board of directors and chair of the audit committee, has died.

"We are deeply saddened by the passing of our friend, colleague and trusted advisor Lou Lipschitz. Lou's financial leadership, and passion for our business, enriched our company and our board, and we will dearly miss his dedication, grace and wonderful sense of humor," Norman Matthews, The Children's Place chairman of the board, said.

Chesapeake, Va. - In a merger that will shake up the dollar store retail vertical, Dollar Tree is acquiring Family Dollar for $8.5 billion in cash and stock. The resulting company will operate more than 13,000 locations in the U.S. and Canada, with an annual sales volume of $18 billion.

Beijing -- Secoo.com, a Chinese luxury and high-end fashion e-commerce company, recently completed a new round of financing that has raised around $100 million. The event represents the largest amount of financing raised in one round across the Chinese luxury and high-end fashion e-commerce sector to date.

San Jose, Calif. – EBay has had success with the password reset it launched in May 2014, following the public revelation of a February 2014 security breach that may have exposed user information. According to Bloomberg, more than half of EBay’s existing 149 million customers have returned since the rest, and the company has also experienced 10-15% growth in new customers since that time.

Tewskbury, Mass. – The unfolding saga at the Market Basket grocery chain continues to take unexpected twists and turns. According to the Boston Globe, the board of directors of Market Basket parent company Demoulas Super Markets has said it will consider a purchase offer from former CEO Arthur T. Demoulas, and the company also faces a lawsuit from several employees.

Atlanta – A variety of costs drove net earnings for the second quarter of fiscal 2014 at Aaron’s Inc. down 67% to $8.5 million from $25.9 million in the same period a year earlier. Expenses related to Aaron’s April 2014 purchase of lease-to-own company Progressive Finance Holdings, as well as advisory and strategic costs and costs related to store closures, impacted net earnings.

After 40 years in the beer business, Molson Coors Brewing Company president and CEO Peter S. Swinburn is retiring from the company and its board of directors on December 31. The board has named Mark R. Hunter, currently CEO and president of Molson Coors Europe and a 25-year industry veteran, as his successor.

Milwaukee – The board of directors of Roundy’s Inc. has named Michael Turzenski, currently Roundy’s group VP and chief accounting officer, as group VP, CFO. Turzenski replaces Darren Karst, who is leaving the company to become CFO of Rite Aid Corp. as of Aug. 10.

Turzenski has served in his current role since February 2012. Turzenski joined Roundy’s in 2007 as VP, controller.