500 Avenue

During a session at the Annual Conference for Catalog & Multichannel Merchants held May 19-22 in Kissimmee, Fla., David Solomon, co-CEO of Goldsmith Agio, pointed to several reasons — both general and directly related to the catalog/multichannel business — why mergers and acquisitions have continued to increase over the past few years. 1. Value creation for strategic buyers. He cited multititle cataloger Redcats USA’s $198.9 million acquisition of United Retail Group last year. The deal not only catapulted Redcats into retail with 500 Avenue stores, but it also gave Redcats’ Woman Within plus-size woman’s apparel catalog and some of its other women’s catalogs