Mergers & Acquisitions

Already one of the biggest providers of flower deliveries, 1-800-Flowers.com now wants to add Royal Riviera pears and Moose Munch snacks to its offerings. The flower delivery company agreed on Tuesday to buy Harry & David, the purveyor of gift baskets, for $142.5 million in cash. Under the terms of the deal, 1-800-Flowers would continue to run Harry & David as a subsidiary, with the current management staying on. The deal comes more than three years after Harry & David filed for bankruptcy, a response to recession-related shopping woes. Since then, the retailer has increased both sales and earnings.

Dollar General met Wall Street expectations with its second-quarter earnings and its plan to continue a bid to acquire competitor Family Dollar Stores. Dollar General said its second quarter net income rose more than 2 percent to $251 million. In the same period last year, the discount retail chain had net income of $245 million. Sales totaled $4.7 billion, up about 7 percent over $4.4 billion a year ago. And even though Family Dollar earlier this month rejected a bid from its larger competitor, Dollar General CEO and Chairman Rick Dreiling said the company remains focused on sealing that deal.

Activist investor Engine Capital wants women's apparel retailer ANN Inc. to sell itself, which it believes could fetch around $2.5 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Engine Capital, which along with a partner controls more than 1 percent of Ann stock, believes a strategic or private-equity buyer would be willing to pay between $50 and $55 a share for the women's retailer, the Journal reported. 

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. 

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. 

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.