Mergers & Acquisitions

Private equity firm Sycamore Partners announced Monday that it bought the going-out-of-business Coldwater Creek brand and other intellectual property through an affiliate company during the apparel chain's bankruptcy proceedings. Sycamore said it plans to relaunch Coldwater Creek as an independent portfolio company, but it didn't give a timeline for the launch. Terms of the acquisition weren't disclosed. "Coldwater Creek is an outstanding brand with a 30-year heritage and strong support from its loyal base of longtime customers," said Peter Morrow, a managing director of Sycamore Partners.

Genesco's LIDS Sports Group, a merchandiser of sports-related headgear and novelties, has purchased Dayton, Ohio-based Cardboard Heroes, which has 19 retail locations in Ohio and Kentucky. Those include four Buckeye Room stores that sell Ohio State University sports merchandise. The purchase also includes the websites cheroes.com and buckeyeroom.com, where the same goods are available online. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. LIDS Sports Group, based in Indianapolis, already had 936 headwear specialty retail stores, 151 sports fan retail stores and 57 team-specific professional sports and university athletics retail stores in North America.

"Fireman Sam," a cartoon aimed at preschoolers, has long been a hit overseas. Now Mattel and Amazon.com are teaming up to sell the yellow-hatted hero to American children — a potentially controversial experiment that, if successful, could create a new model for marrying television shows with related merchandise. Amazon and Hit Entertainment, a division of Mattel, are creating an Amazon.com "content hub" that will, side by side, offer episodes of "Fireman Sam" and the opportunity to buy related toys, books, games, costumes, lunchboxes, T-shirts, hoses, hats, bags, footwear and bikes. 

Abercrombie & Fitch has offered to pay $96,000 to 13 assistant managers for failing to pay proper overtime wages, in connection with a lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of New York. This is in addition to prior offers from Abercrombie & Fitch to pay other assistant managers who had joined the lawsuit. Abercrombie also agreed to pay the assistant managers’ attorney's fees and court costs. The claims arose under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and asserted that Abercrombie violated the FLSA by failing to pay assistant managers all wages due for working more than 40 hours a week.

Apple, the company that turned digital music into a mainstream phenomenon, said on Wednesday that it was buying Beats Electronics, a rising music brand, for $3 billion, in a move that will help it play catch-up with rivals that offer subscription-based music services. Apple and Beats executives said the companies would work together to give consumers around the world more options to listen to music. The Beats brand will remain separate from Apple's, and Apple will offer both Beats’ streaming music service and premium headphones.

Signet's $1.4 billion acquisition of the Zale Corporation looks increasingly beleaguered in the wake of opposition by the investment group TIG Advisors, Zale's second-largest shareholder. Opposing a takeover as being underpriced is nothing new. But what's surprising is that Zale's financial adviser, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, has given an unexpected assist to the deal's opponents by failing to disclose to Zale's board a potential conflict of interest. In February, Signet Jewelers, which owns the Kay and Jared jewelry-store chains, announced that it had reached a deal to buy Zale for $21 a share, or $1.4 billion. 

Alibaba is taking a tougher line against counterfeit items sold on its online marketplaces as the Chinese e-commerce giant heads towards a U.S. stock listing that could be the world's biggest technology company IPO. Some security experts say the Chinese group's stricter standards on piracy and fake goods may even surpass those of Amazon.com and eBay. In its IPO filing last week, Alibaba Group Holding said the perception that its sites are cluttered with counterfeit items could hurt its ability to win over customers, investors and U.S. retail partners. 

TIG Advisors does not want Zales to go to Jared. That's the jist of a 35-page report that TIG filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday afternoon and in which the New York-based investment firm revealed a 9.5 percent stake in the Zale Corporation, saying that it intends to vote against the Zale's proposed merger with Signet Jewelers , the parent company

Apple is reportedly in talks to buy red-hot headphone maker and streaming-music pioneer Beats Electronics. If the deal happens, it would be Apple's biggest ever. The Financial Times and other outlets on Thursday quoted unnamed sources saying Apple would pay $3.2 billion for the Santa Monica, Calif.-based company founded by legendary music producer Jimmy Iovine and hip-hop star Dr. Dre. Described in the Financial Times only as "people familiar with the negotiations," the sources said the deal could be wrapped up as early as next week, though they warned that negotiations could still falter. 

After all, eBay was born almost 20 years ago with a business philosophy based around people digging up stuff from grandma's attic, putting it up for auction online, and letting consumers bid. Sometimes, this drove up the price for something, but usually it left the auction winner feeling as if he or she had gotten a good deal on the bounty. So it should probably not come as a surprise that a company based on acquisition transactions would be looking to do some itself.