Finally! Corporate Express has agreed to be acquired
by rival office supplies giant Staples four months after
Staples’ original bid. Staples, whose brands include UK
cataloguer Neat Ideas, will pay €1.68 billion, or
€9.25 a share-28 per cent more than its initial bid. As part
of the deal, Corporate Express has agreed not to complete its
proposed acquisition of French firm Lyreco.
“Corporate Express managed to get a fairly good price,
especially given the uncertain economic situation in the
US,” an analyst told
Bloomberg.
Hackers broke into the website of apparel cataloguer
Cotton Traders, stealing customer credit-card data,
reports Sky News. Although it won’t disclose the
number of customers whose data were stolen, Cotton Traders said
it was less than the report figure of 38,000.
Travelmood, a direct marketer of long-haul holidays, has
been acquired by TUI Travel, reports TravelWeekly.
April showers bring May sales rise. Like-for-like retail
sales in May rose 1.9 per cent, according to the British Retail
Consortium, the first year-on-year rise since February.
“But the sunshine masked difficult underlying trading
conditions,” notes the Press Association, “with
widespread discounting among retailers and falling sales in
some areas”.
Toys retailer/cataloguer Hamleys is opening its first
store outside of Europe next week, in Amman, Jordan, according to
AMEInfo. Meanwhile, Women’s Wear Daily takes an in-depth look at fashion
retailer Topshop’s entry into the US market with a
40,00-sq-ft store scheduled to open in Manhattan in October./
Even London’s famed Portobello Market has launched an
eCommerce site, reports Vogue.
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