Mergers & Acquisitions

Sister publication Drug Store News has learned that Mary Kelly has been appointed EVP and chief merchandising officer at Rexall Pharma Plus.

Kelly, who has more than 26 years of experience leading business teams in Canada and the United States, joins the company after four years at Shoppers Drug Mart, most recently as EVP, merchandising and category management. Prior to that, Kelly served 17 years at Target in a variety of key leadership positions in merchandising and pharmacy, and at Revco Drug Stores and Eli Lilly before that. 

Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Costco take top spots in ranking; Amazon continues to move up

Hoffman Estates, Ill. - Sears Holdings Corp. has borrowed $1 billion under a new a senior secured term loan facility under an existing credit agreement from April 2011. The existing credit agreement continues to provide for a $3.275 billion asset-based revolving credit facility.

Last month, Sears said it would obtain the loan to help reduce how much money it borrowed under the existing credit facility. The new loan is due June 2018.

Seattle -- HauteLook, an online flash sale retailer owned by Nordstrom, announced that founder Adam Bernhard is stepping out of the CEO role and day-to-day operations of the business, but will remain with HauteLook in an advisory capacity. Terry Boyle will remain as president, reporting to Jamie Nordstrom, president of Nordstrom Direct. With HauteLook fully operating as a division of Nordstrom, no CEO will be appointed in Bernhard's place
   

Armonk, N.Y. -- IBM announced the acquisition of Xtify Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based mobile messaging tools that help organizations improve mobile sales, drive in-store traffic and engage customers with personalized offers. Financial terms are not being disclosed.

The acquisition will help extend IBM’s mobile capabilities to digital marketers across all industries ranging from retail to citizen engagement in the public sector through cloud-based services.

Global Payments president Jeffrey S. Sloan has been named as the company's CEO by the company’s board of directors. He succeeds Paul R. Garcia, who has been the company’s CEO since June 1999 and Chairman since October 2002.  

Under Garcia's leadership, Global Payments became a publicly traded company in early 2001. At that time, Global Payments generated annual revenues of under $350 million, nearly all of which was sourced in the United States. Today, Global Payments is a multinational corporation with nearly $2.5 billion in revenues for fiscal year 2013.

Plano, Texas – J.C. Penney Company shareholder Alan Marcus is suing the troubled department store chain because of its recent decision to build equity by issuing more than $800 million worth of new stock, which sent share values plunging, Reuters reported.    

The report said Marcus, who bought 300 shares of Penney stock on Sept. 26 shortly before the new stock was announced, is trying to obtain class-action status for his suit.