Mergers & Acquisitions

Genesco announced that it has acquired Schuh Group, a specialty retailer of casual and athletic footwear based in the United Kingdom. The purchase price was $159 million. Headquartered in Scotland, Schuh operates 59 stores in the U.K. and Ireland, 16 concessions in Republic apparel stores and one of the U.K.'s largest online shoe websites.

Oprah Winfrey's flagship Oprah Store has closed its doors. The shop had been open since 2008, across from Harpo Studios where Oprah's show filmed for years. The store dished out goods featured on Oprah's show including her illustrious "favorite things," as well as T-shirts, trinkets and more. Before closing last week, everything in the store except for items from "Oprah's Closet" was marked down to $1.

Jim Hagedorn, Scotts Miracle-Gro's CEO, said that he's exploring the medical marijuana industry as well as other niche markets to help increase sales at his lawn-and-garden company. Hagedorn said he wants to “target the pot market."

VF Corporation said on Monday that it would acquire Timberland in a $2 billion deal that will add to the apparel company’s extensive collection of brands like The North Face, Jansport, Nautica and Vans. The deal, at $43 a share, represents a more than 40 percent premium to Timberland’s closing price on Friday.

Petco has purchased Complete Petmart, a 29-store chain based in Dayton, Ohio. Financial terms of the purchase weren't disclosed. San Diego-based Petco said all of Complete Petmart's 230 employees will remain with the company. Petco said it will be making changes to the former Complete Petmart store layouts over the next few weeks.

LIDS Sports Group announced the acquisition of the Buckeye Corner stores in the Columbus, Ohio area. The acquisition includes four Buckeye Corner store locations, along with its e-commerce website and catalog business. Terms of the acquisition weren't disclosed. A retailer specializing in the sale of officially licensed sports headwear, apparel, accessories and novelties since 1980, Buckeye Corner has been the official retail partner of The Ohio State University Alumni Association since 2004.

The Jones Group has acquired Kurt Geiger, Europe's largest luxury shoe retailer, from Graphite Capital, a leading U.K. midmarket private equity firm, for approximately $350 million in cash, inclusive of debt acquired.

Regulators in South Africa approved Wal-Mart's nearly $2.4 billion bid to buy a controlling share of Massmart Holdings Ltd. The Competition Tribunal of South Africa approved the deal on the condition that no job cuts take place for two years. It also requires the merged entity to give employment preference to 503 Massmart employees who lost their jobs.

West Marine will open the biggest store in the company's history, a 50,000-sq.-ft flagship in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Due to open by the end of the year, the store will be twice as big as the company's current largest location and will be focused on serving both local and seasonal boating customers.

With comp store sales down 8 percent for the first quarter of 2011, American Eagle Outfitters' CEO James O'Donnell revealed that the retailer will close up to 35 stores in 2011 and a large number of stores are being considered for potential closing within the next two years.