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Would you wear a baseball hat with an image of a man getting sick on the pavement? That's what Urban Outfitters has put on a baseball cap it launched in the United States for St. Patrick's Day. The green and white hat has a man on the front on his hands and knees getting sick. The slogan below reads, ''Irish Yoga'' and ''downward facing upchuck."

New York City -- Royal Ahold NV has agreed to acquire bol.com, the Netherlands’ largest online retailer, for about $470 million in cash. “Bol.com provides us with the platform, scale and expertise we need to accelerate our growth in online retailing,” said Dick Boer, CEO, Ahold. “Its capabilities and operations in nonfood categories will broaden our assortment and increase our online presence, adding to the existing online food offering through albert.nl. Together, we will be able to offer customers more choice, greater convenience and better value.”

Kenneth Cole shares topped the $15 price the company's founder offered to take the shoe and clothing maker private, signaling investors may be anticipating other bids.

Ellen DeGeneres' ads for J.C. Penney began airing during the 84th annual Academy Awards. They've been mired in controversy ever since the company announced DeGeneres as the spokesperson. The organization One Million Moms has since denounced the company and demanded her removal because she's a lesbian.

Best Buy is running a mobile commerce-enabled advertising campaign that offers consumers a free data transfer whey they buy a laptop. The company is running the mobile commerce ads within Pandora's iPhone application. Best Buy is enticing users to tap on the ad by offering the free data transfer — a $99 value.

New York City -- The Home Depot is expanding its use of PayPal, the online payment service of eBay, from the 51 stores in the pilot program to all of the home improvement retailer’s stores, Dow Jones Newswire reported. Don Kingsborough, PayPal VP for retail and prepaid products, said PayPal should be available at all of Home Depot's approximate 2,000 U.S. locations by the end of next month, according to the report. "We've all been happy with the results and the number of adopters, and how quickly people who had PayPal accounts were able to migrate to use it

Valentine's Day was marred for many by failed or faulty delivery of bouquets to loved ones and many consumers and retailers had things to say about it. Google was asked to comment and it replied by email: "Google allows advertisers to bid on competitor keywords as well as to use competitor terms in the ad text itself as long as advertisers do not make any false or inaccurate claims in their ads."

The Vermont Country Store is suing an Indiana catalog company for copying its trademarks, slogan, look, layout and the content of its unique catalog. In its lawsuit, Vermont Country Store claims that DRG Texas, L.P, which publishes Good Old Days Magazine, designed the catalog to confuse consumers to believe their products are associated with the Vermont Country Store.

Nordstrom's online sales are exploding. Therefore the company is investing $1 billion over the next five years to support its e-commerce infrastructure. Nordstrom will add about 400 e-commerce employees to its direct business and flash-sale retailer HauteLook.

Discount retailer TJX (TJX) has an expansion-oriented mindset that fuels sales. In the next few years, the company aims to add up to 6 percent more retail square footage annually to its footprint. The Massachusetts retailers owns seven chains that sell apparel and home fashions. That includes 980 T.J. Maxx, 884 Marshalls and 375 HomeGoods stores. TJX also sells in Europe and Canada. The draw: Prices that are 20 percent to 60 percent below those in department and specialty stores. TJX reported fourth quarter income of $475.3 million. Revenue rose by 6 percent to hit $6.71 billion, up 6