Retail

Bloomberg Hudson’s Bay Co. agreed to sell its iconic Lord & Taylor building in Manhattan and unloaded a minority stake to a private equity firm to help the struggling Canadian retailer cut debt and bolster its balance sheet. RhoneCapital LLC will buy $500 million worth of convertible shares in Hudson’s Bay, and Rhone is teaming up with WeWork Cos. to ...

Bloomberg With its shares and confidence surging, Nike Inc. was on top of the world in 2015. The company was at an “all-time high,” Chief Executive Officer Mark Parker said at an investor day in October of that year. He predicted sales would jump 63 percent by 2020 to total $50 billion annually. “It’s clear that Nike is a growth ...

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc.’s second headquarters, dubbed HQ2, has lured 238 proposals extending across 54 states, provinces, districts and territories in North America, the company said. Only seven US states refrained from bidding: Arkansas, Hawaii, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Vermont, according to a map Amazon published on its website. Cities are battling for Amazon’s investment of $5 billion ...

Bloomberg The deadline to submit proposals for Amazon.com Inc.’s second headquarters, dubbed HQ2, has arrived, and about 100 cities are expected to compete for the project. Amazon’s preferences for HQ2, which will cost more than $5 billion and create 50,000 jobs over the next two decades, include a metropolitan area with a population of more than 1 million, access to ...

Bloomberg Chocolates are cheaper for Halloween, but prices are likely to rebound by Christmas thanks to rising demand for cocoa beans. A global surplus sent cocoa prices plunging for most of the past two years, which helped to temper retail chocolate costs. There are signs that the overhang is beginning to ebb as consumers eat away the excess. Grindings, a ...

Bloomberg Roots Corp., the Canadian retailer known for its casualwear and leather goods, raised $160 million in its initial public offering after cutting the price below its targeted range, according to people familiar with the matter. The Toronto-based retailer sold shares at C$12 a piece, below its previously disclosed range of C$14 to $16 each, said the people who asked ...

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc. is ready to commit to Brazil. Kind of, sort of. After five years of just selling books in the country, Amazon is now launching an electronics and appliances marketplace. The official announcement came recently, but locals have been talking about it for a week after Bloomberg News was first to report that a significant number of Amazon ...

Bloomberg Sears Canada Inc. received court approval to begin liquidating its stores as the insolvent retailer moves to wind up 65 years of business after failing to adapt to changing consumer tastes. The Toronto-based chain’s plan to begin selling off its inventory on October 19 was approved by Justice Glenn Hainey in Ontario Superior Court of Justice. Gordon Brothers Canada ...

Bloomberg The man who helped put Skinny Pop in lunch boxes all over America is embracing Amazon.com Inc., the scourge of the grocery business. The biggest food companies, notoriously slow to respond to consumer whims and losing market share to nimbler upstarts, desperately crave innovation to keep ahead of Amazon’s threat. And Jason Cohen, the Skinny Pop guy, has been ...

Bloomberg Toys “R” Us Inc., the retailer that filed for bankruptcy in North America, has been exploring options for its growing Asian business including a potential initial public offering, people with knowledge of the matter said. The US chain and its local joint venture partner, the billionaire Fung brothers, have been speaking with investment banks to study the feasibility of ...