Mergers & Acquisitions

Party City announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the MG Novelty Corporation for approximately $5.5 million, which includes seven retail stores under the name “Party Galaxy” in the Oklahoma City metro area. MG Novelty Corporation reported total annual sales of approximately $9.0 million in 2016. “This immediately accretive acquisition provides us the…

Target announced today it has agreed to acquire Shipt, Inc., an online same-day delivery platform, for $550 million in cash. The retail chain said it will use its network of stores and Shipt’s proprietary technology platform and network of more than 20,000 members to bring same-day delivery to customers across the country. Shipt differs from other…

It has been six months since Amazon.com announced its plan to acquire Whole Foods Market, and along with it promised pricing rollbacks at the grocery chain. However, to date those price cuts have seemed few and far between. When NBC News took a deeper dive into the situation, it found 269 items with lower price…

You’ve built your retail business through hard work and great customer service, and business is booming. Now your mind has turned to all the possibilities for expansion and you’re wondering if acquisition is the best option for growth. Acquisition has proven to be a viable expansion strategy for a variety of businesses, with retailers frequently…

CVS Health said on Sunday that it had agreed to buy Aetna for about $69 billion in a deal that would combine the drugstore giant with one of the biggest health insurers in the United States and has the potential to reshape the nation’s health care industry. The transaction, which has been rumored for a…

New York & Company announced yesterday that it was the winning bidder in a recent bankruptcy auction for Fashion to Figure. The women's apparel chain agreed to purchase Fashion to Figure, a retailer of plus-size women's apparel, for a total of $2.4 million, including all fees and expenses. The New York Business Journal reports Fashion…

Furniture and kitchenware giant Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (WSI) is acquiring augmented reality (AR) startup Outward in an all-cash deal for $112 million. The furniture brand, which operates stores including Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, West Elm and others, will be using the startup’s 3-D imaging tech to “enhance and extend its high-touch customer service platform,” the company says. Outward, founded…

Analysts and conspiracy theorists alike have officially dubbed 2017 as “the year of the retail apocalypse.” Although retail has already undergone and will continue to undergo major shifts as we move into 2018, the doom and gloom picture painted by many actually tells the story of retail metamorphosis rather than the end of retail. Metamorphosis…

A.C. Moore, the arts-and-crafts retailer, announced today that it has acquired e-commerce company Blitsy and invested in handcraft marketplace Zibbet to boost its digital capacity. The two major investments are to boost the company’s online reach and sales, said Anthony Piperno, chief marketing and merchandising officer at A.C. Moore. Piperno said both deals were completed last week.…

CVS Health has proposed to buy health insurer Aetna for $200 a share or more, according to news reports. If the deal goes through,  CVS would become the first healthcare triple threat: a pharmacy, a pharmacy benefit manager and an insurer. The Wall Street Journal first reported the proposed deal. Acquiring Aetna would give CVS…