Mergers & Acquisitions

There's been a lot of buzz about who will make a bid for Barnes & Noble, with the current rumors including Wal-Mart and Microsoft. Both companies had kicked the tires in the past, and so it seems reasonable to expect they'd look again. But the real player in the space — and in some ways the most strategic buyer — would be Amazon.com, for a number of reasons that reflect the changing business of brick-and-mortar retail and Amazon's evolution.

The company, which was acquired by Chicago-based buyout firm Madison Dearborn Partners for $1.6 billion in 2006, is working with Barclays and Bank of America Merrill Lynch on a sale process that's still in the early stages, the people said. The people asked not to be named because the process isn't public. Representatives of Barclays and Bank of America declined to comment. Madison Dearborn didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Hot Topic, the operator of more than 800 teen specialty-retail stores, agreed to be bought by private-equity firm Sycamore Partners for about $600 million. The agreement was unanimously approved by Hot Topic's board and will require shareholder and regulatory approval, the companies said today in a statement. The offer of $14 a share is 30 percent higher than Hot Topic's closing price yesterday.

JustFab, a fashion retail and styling platform, announcing that it's purchased children's fashion brand and personalized e-commerce service FabKids. Financial terms weren't disclosed. The kid-focused e-commerce site was launched by ShopStyle founder and serial entrepreneur Andy Moss, and mom and actress Christina Applegate, in August 2012. Instead of offering a box of separates shipped monthly, FabKids sends out one complete outfit it's designed in-house and personalized to the child, based on a custom profile filled out at sign-up.

For Totsy, the business of selling apparel and accessories to expecting parents and their growing families via flash sales was good in 2012; apparently so good that it's acquiring the assets of Mamasource, a deals site for moms. The terms of the acquisition, announced this morning, weren't disclosed. But in an interview with Upstart Business Journal, Totsy Co-Founder and CEO Guillaume Gauthereau said the three-year-old startup has been looking for a company to acquire for some time and that its goal was pure and simple: growth, as in 2 million additional members and all the revenue that comes with it.

Luxury bedding company Cuddledown Inc. has been acquired by American Capital Ltd.'s Potpourri Group, a specialty catalog company. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. American Capital, a publicly traded private equity firm, said the transaction was completed in December. The deal marks the second acquisition of a Maine-based company by the Potpourri Group in recent months. In June, it acquired FetchDog, a dog accessories catalog and internet site co-founded by actress Glenn Close and her husband, David Shaw.

While Times Square was preparing to drop a ball and Kimye was preparing to drop a bomb on New Year's Eve, Gap was finalizing the details of its acquisition of specialty retailer Intermix. WWD reports that the deal, which fueled some rumors and speculation last month, closed on Dec. 31 to the tune of $130 million. The partnership should aid both brands: Intermix can use Gap's massive reach to grow its own retail and e-tail presence, while Gap can benefit from Intermix's expertise in the contemporary luxury market. But most exciting: Gap also intends to beef up Intermix's website with some innovative-sounding improvements.

Advance Auto Parts, a retailer of automotive aftermarket parts, accessories, batteries and maintenance items, announced that it's entered into a definitive purchase agreement to acquire B.W.P. Distributors, Inc. in an all-cash transaction. BWP, a privately held company that supplies, markets and distributes automotive aftermarket parts and products principally to commercial customers, was founded in 1962 and is based in Armonk, NY. BWP currently operates or supplies 216 locations in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Seeking to expand its West Coast presence, national chain Vitamin Shoppe said Monday it's reached a deal to buy the assets of Seattle-based competitor Super Supplements for about $50 million in cash. Vitamin Shoppe, a specialty retailer of nutritional products based in North Bergen, N.J., expects to complete the purchase by the end of the month. It operates 17 stores in the Northwest, while Super Supplements has 31 locations in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

Grainger, a broad line supplier of maintenance, repair and operating products serving businesses and institutions, yesterday announced its intent to acquire Techni-Tool, Inc., and its affiliate Wassco Inc., leading specialist distributors serving manufacturing customers with 2011 sales of $88 million. Grainger expects the transaction to close by Dec. 31, subject to standard conditions, and be neutral to 2013 earnings per share. Terms of the agreement weren't disclosed.