Mergers & Acquisitions

Family Dollar is rebuffing Dollar General's takeover bid, citing antitrust issues. The discounter's board supports its existing merger with Dollar Tree. Family Dollar Stores Inc. Chairman and CEO Howard Levine said in a statement Thursday that its board and advisers reviewed Dollar General's offer and determined it wasn't reasonably likely to be completed on the terms proposed. Dollar General declined to comment. Family Dollar became a takeover target in part because of its business struggles. The Matthews, N.C.-based company has been shuttering stores and cutting prices in hopes of boosting its financial performance. 

Blake Mycoskie built TOMS into a darling of the retail industry in large part by selling simple canvas espadrilles and a unique charitable donation plan. Mycoskie, who announced on Wednesday that he was selling half of TOMS to Bain Capital, is now betting that he can continue balancing the charitable and commercial parts of the company he founded eight years ago. The deal, which is said to value TOMS at about $625 million, including debt, shows the continued rise of one of the more unusual stories of the fashion world. 

Online home furnishings retailer Wayfair has filed for a $350 million public offering of stock. The Boston-based company, which said its revenues were up 52 percent last year and almost 50 percent in the first half of this year, was founded in 2002 by Niraj Shah and Jeff Conine. They still each own 29 percent of the company, according to Wayfair's IPO filing with the SEC. Other owners include Great Hill Partners with an 11.4 percent stake, Battery Ventures with 6.2 percent and HarbourVest Partners with 7 percent. Wayfair's brands include Wayfair.com, Birch Lane, DwellStudio, AllModern.com, and Joss & Main. 

The low-price retailer war is heating up: Dollar General made an all-cash bid of nearly $10 billion for Family Dollar, topping a deal Dollar Tree made last month. Dollar General is bidding $78.50 per Family Dollar share, to total $9.7 billion. Dollar General said the deal is superior to the $74.50 per share cash and stock offer Dollar Tree made last month. That deal has been valued at $8.5 billion. A Dollar General spokeswoman declined to comment on whether the board responded to the offer.

E-commerce brand Fab.com has been in sale discussions with various interested parties, as CEO Jason Goldberg revealed. Industry experts have predicted that the flash-sale company will sell for between $100 million to $150 million, which is a large decrease from the $1 billion valuation Fab.com was given last June. 

In the days since Nordstrom officially confirmed its acquisition of Trunk Club, I've had a surprising number of people ask me if I think the deal "makes sense." Many of them, even if willing to acknowledge the synergies between the two companies, balk at the reported $350 million price. The skeptic's case goes as follows: Trunk Club is hardly a novel or proprietary concept and Nordstrom could easily duplicate the experience using its own brand and infrastructure. Moreover, the men's apparel category is far smaller than the women's and doesn't merit such a big bet. 

FTD Companies Inc. will acquire the Provide Commerce floral and gifting business from Liberty Interactive Corp. for $430 million in cash and stock. FTD will obtain Provide Commerce's e-commerce brands, including ProFlowers, Shari's Berries and Personal Creations. FTD says the efficiencies and resources created by this acquisition will allow it to further invest in new products, services and technology. The combination is expected to generate more than $25 million in annual synergies within 36 months of closing, with a goal of creating incremental value for FTD stockholders over time.

"Guys hate shopping," said Brian Spaly, the chief executive of Trunk Club, a shopping website for men, "but love to look good." As retailers have come up with new ways to target men, Nordstrom has been riding the wave. It plans to announce on Thursday that it's agreed to purchase Trunk Club, a five-year old website that sells about 100 brands of men's apparel, for an undisclosed amount. It's the latest sign that men aren't the only ones taking their sartorial habits seriously. 

The merging of retail and technology has led to the two sides poaching each other's talent. This commonly leads to companies gobbling up entire startups, as was demonstrated yesterday by Wal-Mart's tech team, @WalmartLabs, acquiring Luvocracy, a three-year-old firm and an online community of half-a-million members that allows consumers to discover and buy products recommended by other people, from their own friends and family to bloggers and other influencers. Sixteen Luvocracy employees are slated to join @WalmartLabs as part of the acquisition. Company spokesman Bao Nguyen told MarketWatch that Wal-Mart doesn't plan to integrate Luvocracy's technology into Walmart.com.

Dollar Tree is buying competitor Family Dollar in a cash-and-stock deal worth about $8.5 billion. The boards of both companies unanimously approved the merger, announced Monday. The transaction is valued at $74.50 a share. Dollar Tree CEO Bob Sasser called the deal a "transformational opportunity." "This acquisition will extend our reach to lower-income customers and strengthen and diversify our store footprint," he said. Family Dollar CEO Howard Levine will report to Sasser. Levine's company will continue to operate under the Family Dollar name. The combined company will have more than 13,000 stores and $18 billion in sales.