Strategy

New York City -- Activist investor Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management raised its stake in Borders Group from 31.5% to 37.3% and is prepared to finance an offer by Borders to buy larger rival Barnes & Noble, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday.

According to the statement, Ackman is prepared to finance an offer by Borders to buy all of Barnes & Noble’s stock in an all-cash transaction valued at $16 per share, which would amount to about $960 million, based on the shares outstanding.

Palo Alto, Calif. -- HP Enterprise Services Monday announced Tops Friendly Markets, the New York-based supermarket chain with stores in New York and Pennsylvania, has signed a seven-year applications and infrastructure technology services contract valued in excess of $80 million that gives the retailer flexibility to transform its business processes to drive growth.

Minneapolis -- Supervalu announced that Janel Haugarth, executive VP, president and COO of the company’s supply chain services organization has been named executive VP merchandising and logistics. Steve Jungmann, who had held the position of executive VP merchandising, will leave the company effective immediately.

New York City -- Walgreens on Friday reported that its same-store sales rose 3.2% in November. The drugstore operator’s total sales rose 8.6% to $5.83 billion. (Duane Reade stores, acquired in April 2010, contributed 2.8% points to the total sales increase for the month. But those stores are not included in the same-store sales report.)

Meanwhile, Rite Aid Corp. reported that its November same-store sales fell 1.3% due to the introduction of new generic drugs and a decline in prescriptions resulting partly from a milder flu season.

Houston -- Houston-based commercial real estate brokerage Baker Katz, an X Team partner, announced that it has acquired a former Hollywood Video building at Grogan’s Mill and Sawdust in The Woodlands, Texas. 

As part of an investment fund dedicated to real estate development, acquisition and ownership, Baker Katz purchased the 7,500-sq.-ft. building that is located near the area’s newest Wal-Mart Supercenter in The Woodlands, and plans to renovate and expand the building, subdivide it and re-lease the new spaces to individual tenants.

College Station, Texas -- Hobby Town USA recently opened a new 2,480-sq.-ft. store at Central Station, located in College Station, Texas.

Central Station is owned by New York City-based Centro Properties Group.