Mergers & Acquisitions

Online retailer Overstock.com on Tuesday placed a $21.5 million bid for some of Bed Bath & Beyond’s assets, including its intellectual property, reports CNBC. Overstock’s stalking horse bid — which will set the floor at the expected bankruptcy-run auction — also includes the business internet and mobile properties and all business data. The offer doesn’t include Bed Bath…

Bed Bath & Beyond is in talks to sell its Buybuy Baby chain to retail investment firm Go Global Retail, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. Go Global Retail owns children's clothing brand Janie and Jack and womenswear label ModCloth, which it acquired from Walmart. It primarily invests…

Qurate Retail Group, the owner of shopping networks QVC and HSN, has sold online retailer Zulily to private equity investment firm Regent for an undisclosed sum. Regent owns and operates several consumer brands, including Club Monaco, DIM Paris, La Senza, Escada, and DiamondBack. Terry Boyle, a former Nordstrom executive and e-commerce veteran, was named Zulily’s president and CEO…

Tempur Sealy International Inc announced on Tuesday it's buying retailer Mattress Firm in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $4 billion, as the leading bedding maker looks to grow its business and stem a post-pandemic weakness in sales, reports CNBC. Mattress Firm, part-owned by Steinhoff International Holdings NV, is among the biggest bedding retailers in the U.S.,…

francesca’s, a nationwide chain of fashion and accessories boutiques based in Texas, acquired the 13-year-old digitally native brand Richer Poorer on Tuesday. Effective immediately, Richer Poorer is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Francesca’s. The terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but according to Andrew Clarke, CEO of francesca’s, the impetus was Richer Poorer’s experience with…

FullBeauty Brands, an omnichannel retailer of extended sizes and a pioneer in size-inclusive fashions, purchased plus-size fashion brand ELOQUII Inc. from Walmart in April. In this video, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews FullBeauty Brands CEO Jim Fogarty about the acquisition, including how ELOQUII will be integrated into FullBeauty's current portfolio of brands as well as the new…

Walmart is selling online apparel brand ELOQUII to FullBeauty Brands, marking the retailer’s third divestiture of a direct-to-consumer brand this year. The big-box retailer sold Bonobos to WHP Global and Express earlier this month and offloaded Moosejaw to Dick’s Sporting Goods in February. The sales are a reversal of a 2017-18 strategy led by Marc Lore, Walmart’s former head of e-commerce. Walmart bought ELOQUII in…

Global dealmaking suffered a record fall during the second half of 2022, as rising interest rates, surging inflation, and the war in Ukraine brought a period of frenetic activity to an abrupt, if not surprising, close. According to data provider Refinitiv, mergers and acquisitions totaled $3.6 trillion worldwide in 2022, down 37 percent from 2021’s…

L’Oréal announced on Monday that it's buying the Australian luxury beauty brand Aēsop for $2.5 billion. The agreement is between L’Oréal and Aēsop's parent company, Natura &Co. Aēsop currently operates around 400 stores across the Americas, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Asia, with a nascent footprint in China. Launched in 1987,  Aēsop is known for its skin, hair and…

In this episode of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Ariane Goldman, CEO of Hatch Collective, parent company of leading maternity brands HATCH, Motherhood Maternity, A Pea in the Pod, and Destination Maternity. In the conversation, Goldman discusses her entrepreneurial career journey (1:00), how the new Hatch Collective business is strategically combining four leading…