Mergers & Acquisitions

New York — The New York office of Berkadia Commercial Mortgage recently arranged $17.5 million in financing for 631 Wilshire Boulevard, a mixed-use property in Santa Monica, California. The borrowers are Pacshore Partners and GreenOak Real Estate.

The two-year loan came through Berkadia’s proprietary bridge lending program. It features two extension options for one year, a 65% loan-to-value ratio and a 75% loan-to-cost ratio.

New York -- U.S. retail and consumer  merger & acquisition activity during first quarter 2014 was primarily driven by five multibillion dollar transactions, with more than half aligned to the food and beverage sector, confirming a positive deals outlook for the year, according to PwC’s U.S. retail and consumer deals insights first quarter 2014 report.
   

Venice, Fla. — Carrabba’s Italian Grill has signed a long-term ground lease for a 1.31-acre outparcel in the parking lot of the Lowe’s Home Improvement store in Venice, Florida. Carrabba’s plans to begin the construction of a new restaurant immediately, with the grand opening slated for late this year.

New York -- Google has purchased analytics firm Adometry, which helps advertisers get a better return on digital advertising by providing better attribution on the data collected about ads, including whether an ad was viewed, and whether it led to a sale.

Here is the statement from the Google Analytics team:

Staples is in the process of acquiring PNI Digital Media, a leading innovator in digital media solutions for retailers, for CDN$1.70 per share, representing a net equity value of approximately CDN$73.9 million.

The purchase share price represents a premium of 31.8% over the closing price of CDN$1.29 of the PNI shares May 2 on the Toronto Stock Exchange and a premium of 28.9% over the 30 day volume weighted average price of the PNI shares on the TSX for the period ended May 2.

Kmart Pharmacy is working with Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy to give Kmart customers and Shop Your Way members access to specialty medications, bringing specialized support for a variety of patient conditions, including but not limited to: HIV, Crohn's disease, anemia blood modifiers and Hepatitis C.

Framingham, Mass. -- Staples Inc. said on Monday that it has agreed to buy PNI Digital Media, Canadian company whose software platform enables retailers to sell such personalized products as photo books, calendars, business cards, documents, wedding invitations, and stationery. The cash transaction is valued at approximately C$73.9 million ($67.5 million).

PNI’s software powers both online and in-store platforms. Its retail clients include Costco and Walmart Canada.

Expenses associated with a rejected merger with Argonne Capital Group and the planned closing of more than a dozen stores took a chunk out of broad-line retailer Alco’s fourth quarter results.  

Net sales from continuing operations during the quarter decreased 8.9% to $130.9 million, compared to $143.6 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013, which had an additional week. Excluding the 14th week of the fiscal 2013 quarter, net sales from continuing operations decreased 4.7%.