Mergers & Acquisitions

Ascena Retail Group, which runs Dressbarn and Lane Bryant women's clothing stores, said it agreed to buy rival ANN Inc., owner of LOFT and Ann Taylor, for $2.15 billion. ANN Inc., which like Ascena targets women in the 20-to-40-year-old age group, has been hit hard by increasing competition from fast-fashion chains and a pullback in discretionary…

Back in March, online marketplace Farfetch raised $86 million from a host of investors like Condé Nast International and DST Global, with the stated intention of expanding its presence worldwide while developing its brick-and-mortar touchpoints through its click-and-collect service. Turns out the e-commerce startup is building out its real world presence in more ways than…

Discount retailer Dollar Tree said Tuesday it expects to be able to complete its purchase of competitor Family Dollar in May, and said it will have to sell about 340 Family Dollar locations to close the deal. Dollar Tree said the Federal Trade Commission is almost finished reviewing the $8.5 billion acquisition and has identified 340 stores that it wants the company to sell in order to preserve competition for consumers. Dollar Tree said all or almost all of those stores will be Family Dollar locations. 

A private equity firm said this week that it would buy retailer J.Jill, which specializes in casual women's fashion, shoes and accessories. TowerBrook Capital Partners, based in New York and London, will take over the fashion company from investment firm Arcapita and private equity firm Golden Gate Capital. Financial terms weren't disclosed. J.Jill, based in Quincy, Mass., has more than 250 stores nationwide.

Belk Inc is exploring a sale that could value the largest family-owned and operated department store chain in the United States at as much as $4 billion, including debt, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday. Belk has hired investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc to help it evaluate strategic alternatives, including a potential sale, the people said. Major department stores, such as Macy's and Nordstrom, as well as large private equity firms are expected to be contacted by Belk to solicit their interest in a deal, the people added.

The Yoox Group said on Tuesday that it had agreed to merge with its luxury e-commerce rival Net-a-Porter in an all-share deal. The transaction would create an online luxury fashion retailer from two companies that combined to post revenue of 1.3 billion euros, or about $1.4 billion, in 2014, Yoox said. The new company would be called Yoox Net-a-Porter Group. The agreement comes more than a year after the first reports that Yoox was exploring a purchase and a day after the companies confirmed they were considering a potential business combination.

There was a time when it looked like Amazon.com wanted to become a destination for high-end fashion, but now that that goal is looking less attainable, the online retail giant may just acquire a destination instead. According to a report in Women's Wear Daily, Amazon is in "ongoing talks" to buy Net-a-Porter, which could be valued at as much as €2 billion (about $2.2 billion). Reps from both parties declined to comment, and it's always possible that the talks could lead to nothing, but the deal would make sense for a few reasons.

A unit of GameStop Corp. won an auction for the right to take over more than 160 stores that bankrupt consumer-electronics retailer RadioShack Corp. was planning to close. In court documents filed Wednesday in Wilmington, Delaware, RadioShack said GameStop's Spring Communications Holding — known as Spring Mobile — will pay $15,000 a store to take over leases at locations around the U.S. Spring has about two months to decide which of the stores it wants.

Rite Aid, the big pharmacy chain, agreed on Wednesday to acquire a top pharmacy benefit manager, Envision Pharmaceutical Services, for $2 billion in cash and stock. Envision Pharmaceutical Services, known as EnvisionRx, is owned by the private equity firm TPG, making this one of the year's early successful exits for a buyout firm. Rite Aid will pay TPG about $1.8 billion in cash and $200 million in stock for EnvisionRx. The value of the deal also includes an expected future tax benefit of $275 million.

Staples announced Wednesday that it will acquire Office Depot for $6.3 billion, a move that merges the two largest chain stores selling office supplies. The deal comes as the retailers are seeing massive upheaval in their industry. Demand for paper-based office supplies is dwindling as more business functions move online, and a diverse array of competitors, including Amazon.com and Wal-Mart, are competing to sell these kinds of goods. Together, the brands would have about $39 billion in annual sales and about 4,000 stores. Staples CEO Ron Sargent said that a merger would help the brands compete more effectively.