Mergers & Acquisitions

WellPoint Inc. will sell contact lens and eyewear retailer 1-800 Contacts to private-equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners, unloading a company it bought for around $900 million less than two years ago. The Indianapolis-based insurer also agreed to sell the glasses.com website and its technology for helping people try on glasses virtually, which were part of the 1-800 Contacts purchase, to Italian eyewear company Luxottica Group SpA. Financial terms of the transactions weren't disclosed, but WellPoint said it would record an impairment charge of between 52 cents and 57 cents a share in the fourth quarter of 2013. 

Men's Wearhouse moved Monday to pin Jos. A. Bank Clothiers in a corner with a hostile $1.6 billion bid for its smaller rival. With the offer of $57.50 cash for each of Hampstead, Md.-based Bank's outstanding shares, Men's Wearhouse is bypassing the retailer's management to appeal directly to shareholders. The so-called hostile takeover bid is the latest volley in the war to control a merger that analysts now see as all but inevitable.

Jos. A. Bank Clothiers has rebuffed a $1.5 billion takeover bid by Men's Wearhouse, prompting its larger rival to explore other ways to satisfy investors’ hunger for a merger of the suit retailers. Shares of Men's Wearhouse fell about 1 percent on Monday after Jos. A. Bank rejected its offer, the latest move in a protracted battle between two retailers intent on playing the lead role in the creation of a combined entity. "I expect this tug-of-war to persist for some time," Anthony Michael Sabino, a professor at St. John's University's Peter J. Tobin College of Business, told Reuters.

The Jones Group announced it's accepted a buyout offer of $15 per share from private equity firm Sycamore Partners. The deal gives Jones, which owns a collection of midmarket fashion brands, an equity value of $1.2 billion. Sycamore will also take on $1 billion in debt, bringing the deal's enterprise value to $2.2 billion. Jones, which owns brands including Nine West, Anne Klein and Easy Spirit, has struggled in recent quarters as sales slumped, and put itself up for sale this summer after the activist hedge fund Barington Capital Group took a 2 percent stake in the company.

Old brands don't die, they just retire to Vermont. The Vermont Country Store, that is, which bills itself as the "Purveyors of the Practical and Hard-to-Find." About 15 million U.S. households are hearing the thunk of its catalog hitting their mailboxes this Christmas, its pages packed with generations of venerable products from Jubliee kitchen wax and Lifebuoy soap to Turkish Taffy to Postum — even Fuller Brush products. A trip through its print or web pages is a trip down memory lane. Just check the comments section.

Fifth & Pacific is selling Lucky Brand Jeans for $225 million so that it can better focus on its Kate Spade brand. The New York company, formerly known as Liz Claiborne, has been selling off parts of its business over the past few years. Before announcing the sale Tuesday to an affiliate of private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners LP, it sold its Juicy Couture brand in October to Authentic Brands Group for $195 million. The Lucky deal includes $140 million in cash and $85 million as a three-year seller note. 

Grainger, a broad-line supplier of maintenance, repair and operating products serving businesses and institutions, today acquired Safety Solutions Inc., a Dublin, Ohio-based distributor of safety footwear, supplies and services with a strong focus on the manufacturing sector. In 2012, Safety Solutions Inc. had sales of $63 million. The terms of the deal weren't disclosed. Including integration costs, Grainger expects the acquisition to be slightly dilutive to earnings in 2014 and slightly accretive in 2015.

Forget Black Friday. When it comes to selling suits and ties, the appropriate colors are apparently black and blue. Men's Wearhouse, which recently fought off a hostile bid from smaller rival Jos. A. Bank, announced its own $1.5 billion bid for Jos. A Bank this morning. Men's Wearhouse said in a statement that it evaluated a number of alternatives after Jos. A. Bank took its unsolicited offer public on Oct. 9. Men's Wearhouse concluded that an acquisition of Jos. A. Bank made the most sense. Men's Wearhouse is offering $55 a share in cash. 

Jos. A. Bank Clothiers terminated its unsolicited $2.3 billion takeover offer for rival men's clothing retailer Men's Wearhouse, though left the door open for the potential of future acquisition talks. Jos. A. Bank had said it would drop its buyout offer if Men's Wearhouse's board didn't engage in negotiations by Thursday. "Jos. A. Bank continues to believe that a transaction could be in the best interest of the respective shareholders of the two companies," Jos. A. Bank said in a statement early Friday.

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and eBay have partnered to present the Martha Stewart American Made Market, exclusively on eBay, an online marketplace that will spotlight makers, support artisans and celebrate the handmade. Curated by Martha Stewart and her team at Martha Stewart Living, the American Made Market will honor a new generation of great American entrepreneurs with a curated e-commerce experience that will include products in categories such as crafts, food, garden, and more. The Martha Stewart American Made Market on eBay is an extension of Martha Stewart's American Made program, which celebrated its second year this fall.