Trading Partners

Columbus, Ohio -- Washington Prime Group announced Tuesday it will acquire shopping center REIT Glimcher Realty Trust in a deal worth $4.3 billion.

Washington Prime Group, a Bethesda, Maryland-based REIT, and Glimcher will combine under a new name WP Glimcher, with headquarters remaining in the current Glimcher offices in Columbus, Ohio.

The newly combined company will remain publicly traded.

New York -- ICA Sweden has signed a licensing agreement with Starbucks Coffee Company to open Starbucks retail stores in the grocery store channel in Sweden. The cafés will be operated by ICA according to the Starbucks licensing concept and under the Starbucks brand.

Initially, the plan is to open three Starbucks retail stores during 2015. These will then be evaluated before a decision is made on the possible establishment of more cafés.

Top Dick’s Sporting Goods executives Joe Schmidt and John Duken have announced plans to leave the retailer before the end of the fiscal year.

Schmidt has served as Dick’s president and COO since 2009. He joined the company in 1990 and has served in key leadership roles with the retailer during his 24 year tenure. Schmidt will remain with the company until the end of the fiscal year, but could leave sooner once a successor is named.

Boca Raton, Fla. – Office Depot Inc. will transfer the listing of its common stock from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq Global Select Market. The company expects its common stock to cease trading on the NYSE effective at the close of business on Sept. 25, and to commence trading on Nasdaq on Sept. 26, when the market opens.

The company will retain its current ticker symbol “ODP” when trading begins on Nasdaq.

New York – Ann Inc. is publicly responding to an open letter sent by activist investors Engine Capital and Red Alder on Aug. 25, which urged the company to sell at a substantial premium above current stock price. In a press release, Ann Inc. said its board is “very active and consistently has been, and remains, focused on enhancing shareholder value.”

Ann Inc. also said its board regularly reviews all options and uses a financial advisor to help evaluate them.

Leading shopping center owner and operator DDR Corp. announced that CEO Daniel B. Hurwitz and the board of directors have decided not to renew his employment agreement, which expires December 31, 2015. It is anticipated that Hurwitz will remain CEO through 2015 to ensure a smooth leadership transition.

North Plainfield, N.J. — David Reiner has joined retail real estate services firm Levin Management as VP of leasing. Most recently, Reiner served as director of real estate for Body Central Stores Inc.

During the past 25 years, he has also has held executive- and management-level retail leasing positions with property owners such as Urban Retail Properties, Colonial Properties Trust, and Simon Property Group.
 

Boca Raton, Fla. - Jeffrey Smith, CEO of investment firm Starboard Value LLP, has resigned from Office Depot’s board of directors, effective immediately. The nominating and governance committee will commence a search for a replacement.

Smith, who joined the board in August 2013 to help Office Depot smoothly transition to a new combined company with OfficeMax and find a new CEO, said he is leaving because he is satisfied that Office Depot has reached both goals.

Goodlettsville, Tenn. – Dollar General Corp. is upping the ante in its $9.1 billion bid to purchase Family Dollar Inc. by making a hostile takeover offer to Family Dollar stockholders of $80 per share. This offer beats the $74.50 per share, $8.5 billion offer Family Dollar has accepted from Dollar Tree Inc, and is a 32% premium over the closing price of $60.66 for Family Dollar stock on Sept. 9.
 

Since Family Dollar’s board of directors unanimously rejected Dollar General’s second and sweetened tender offer from Sept. 2, Dollar General has decided to make the tender offer directly to the company’s shareholders.

The company’s all-cash offer of $80 per share beats Dollar Tree’s offer of $74.50 per share cash/stock offer originally made July 28. The Family Dollar board has rejected both Dollar General’s offers on the basis of antitrust regulatory considerations.