Mergers & Acquisitions

Kroger said Wednesday that it's buying Vitacost.com, an online seller of vitamins and other health-oriented products, for $280 million. Kroger said the acquisition would open up opportunities to sell its products online and compete with companies like Amazon.com and Wal-Mart. "The deal could be transformative for Kroger," said Burt Flickinger III, managing director at retail consulting firm Strategic Resource Group. Kroger's online retail options are now limited to King Scoopers in Denver and 154 Harris Teeter stores, primarily in the Southeast. Its Denver model has been a small-scale work in progress that wouldn't work nationwide, the company said. 

Sport Chalet is being acquired by a company that owns Eastern Mountain Sports and Bob's Stores. Sport Chalet, with 50 stores in the U.S. western states of California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona, announced it was looking for potential partnerships and/or investors last year as the retailer set to expand its technological strategies. Under the agreement, Sport Chalet will keep its stores open and keep its name. Sport Chalet CEO Craig Levra will continue to manage the business out of Los Angeles, the companies said.

Barnes & Noble on Wednesday disclosed plans to split its retail and Nook units into two separate public companies, as the bookseller looks to breathe new life into its e-reader business. Barnes & Noble said it will begin to take steps to complete the separation by the end of the first quarter of

Etsy acquired a leading marketplace for handmade goods in France, its sixth acquisition. A Little Market boasts 88,000 designers, 620,000 members and over 1.9 million creations, with 3.3 million monthly visits and 31 million page views per month, according to the most recent statistics published on its website. An Etsy spokesperson told EcommerceBytes the two marketplaces will remain independent. France is Etsy's strongest non-English market, she said, but Etsy's business in France is more than 90 percent import/export. "A Little Market is a strategically complementary business, focused almost entirely on domestic trade."

Activist investor Carl Icahn said Thursday that he wants to see Family Dollar sold at once, and he told the retailer that he's prepared to seek shareholder support to fire the entire board of directors if he doesn't get his way. Icahn said in a letter to Family Dollar CEO Howard Levine that he wants three seats on the board of directors, which would comprise a new committee tasked with exploring a sale of the company. The letter said Icahn discussed Family Dollar over dinner with Levine on Wednesday night. The two didn't come to any agreement.

Struggling e-commerce site Fab has gone shopping. The once high-flying company, which has recently suffered a series of pitfalls including a round of layoffs last month, announced Wednesday that it's buying One Nordic Furniture Co., a retailer known as the "luxury Ikea" with operations in Finland and Sweden. The deal is the next step in chief executive Jason Goldberg's strategy to design, market and sell private-label goods rather than rely on the products of other brands. 

Wal-Mart has acquired Stylr, the 13th tech move in three years as the retailer works to build infrastructure to support the next generation of retail. The deal was announced on Monday. "As we continue to integrate digital and physical retail to create new and unique experiences for customers, we're thrilled to add Stylr to our mobile team. Over half of Wal-Mart smartphone users have used their device in-store to assist with their shopping, and with 80 percent of our customers under the age of 35 owning a smartphone, we expect this to grow dramatically."

eBay announced plans to acquire AppTek to help it translate its 650 million individual listings into multiple languages as the company pursues its cross-border strategy. Global expansion is a key priority for eBay, which said 20 percent of its transactions occur across borders, and one of every three new users to eBay comes through a cross-border transaction — a disproportionate share of those new users coming from BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and emerging markets.

The Michaels Companies, owner of the eponymous arts-and-crafts retail chain Michaels as well as framing chain Aaron Brothers, said in a filing Monday that it plans to return to the market sometime this year, and in doing so, will raise a half-a-billion dollars. In an updated SEC filing, the nation's largest seller of arts-and-crafts goods said that it plans to raise $500 million by offering 27.8 million shares at a price range of $17 to $19. 

Sycamore Partners, a private-equity firm that focuses on retail investments, said it's interested in acquiring the struggling clothing chain Express after amassing a 9.9 percent stake in the company. In a letter to Express’ board, Sycamore said it would like to perform due diligence to determine a price for the retailer. The investment firm said it would submit a bid within 30 days of getting access to Express’ books. Shares of the clothing chain, which had a $1.14 billion valuation at the close of trading today, surged as much as 33 percent after hours.