Mergers & Acquisitions

Coming this summer to a Sephora near you: an XpresSpa station featuring Sephora Nail Studio Art + Lacquer services. You might recognize the XpresSpa brand from your latest vacation — the company owns and operates 27 massage/nail/skincare/waxing spas in airports all over the world.

Seven years after launching a third-party auction marketplace designed to rival eBay, Overstock.com is shutting it down. The company posted a message on its website, but gave no reason for the closure. Overstock.com Spokesperson Roger Johnson told EcommerceBytes the company preferred not to comment on the matter.

Yell, the company that produces Yellowbook directories, announced it's acquired Znode. Znode's technology will serve as Yell's e-commerce platform, an important element of Yell's new strategy to connect small businesses with consumers on a local level. Znode will be incorporated into Yell Group as part of its new consumer division, Yell Connect.

Columbia Sportswear announced a collaboration with Jeffrey Kalinsky, founder of Jeffrey New York and executive vice president of designer merchandising for Nordstrom, to create a line of impeccably appointed, outdoor-inspired pieces. The resulting line of five men's products — four outerwear pieces and one boot — will be available exclusively at Jeffrey New York in mid-September as well as at five Nordstrom locations.

Lucky is the latest magazine to jump on the social shopping bandwagon as it announced its partnership with ThisNext.com. The cobranded shopping site will be accessible through LuckyMag.com and ThisNext.com, allowing shoppers to create personalized "shopping guides" from all the products featured in the latest issue of Lucky.

eBay announced it's purchased Zong, a company that lets you pay for purchases with your mobile phone number, for $240 million in cash. The acquisition is meant to make PayPal an even greater force in the world of mobile payments.

Amazon.com announced it's reached an agreement to acquire The Book Depository International, an online bookseller offering over 6 million books for delivery worldwide. Terms of the transaction weren't disclosed.

Nokia shuttered its remaining U.K. retail stores earlier this month (with the exception of Heathrow Airport, which remains open), and also discontinued sales on its U.S. and U.K. online stores. A former Nokia employee cited poor marketing, high prices, slowing traffic and a high product return rate as a few of the reasons that the stores closed.

Wal-Mart plans to launch a new minority supplier program in Chicago that will subsequently be expanded nationally, according to published reports.

Sears plans to spin off its home improvement unit, Orchard Supply Hardware Stores, as a separate publicly traded company. Often called OSH, Orchard Supply is a San Jose, Calif.-based chain that operates 89 stores, all in California. Shares of OSH, which plans to be traded as OSHS on the Nasdaq once it becomes a standalone company, will be distributed to Sears Holdings shareholders.