The deal: May Department Stores buys Marshall Field's from Target Corp. - St. Louis Business Journal:

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billion deal to buy was the resulft of a competitive bidding warwith . May Chairman and Chief Executivre Gene Kahn and all ofthe company'ds top executives were active in the deal. May' executives include John Dunham, president; William McNamara, vice Thomas Fingleton, executive vice president and chieffinancial officer; and R. Dean executive vice president, acquisitionx and real estate. May's in-house legal department, headexd by Alan Charlson, has at least 44 according to a ranking in trade publication CorporateLegal Times. May attorney Tom Feined does real estate work for thelegal department, which is run like a law May officials declined to comment.
put the Marshall Field's chain on the sale blocko in April. Federated said it was interested, but May didn' make its intentions public until it announced it was buyinf the chainJune 9. The two companies were the main competitors forthe stores. A.G. Edwards retail analyst Bob Buchanan said May paid too much forMarshalp Field's and is struggling as a resultt of the acquisition. "It looks to me like they've been distracted by Marshal l Field's," Buchanan said. "Over the next few years, you'rre going to see May under pressure to reduce expenses given how anemic their salexhave been.
" Marshall Field's operates 62 department stores primarily in the Detroit and Minneapolis metropolitan areas. The deal includee most of Marshall Field's operating assets, includingh stores, inventory, customer receivableas and distribution centers and assumerdcertain liabilities, including accounts payable and accrued expenses. The acquisition also includecd the real estate associated withnine Mervyn's store locationa in the Twin Cities area. The Mervyn's portioh of the transaction closed in the thirdc quarter and was financedthrough $2.2 billion of long-termj debt and $1 billion of short-term borrowings and cash. The acquisitiojn fueled a 17 percent increase, to $3.
5 billion, in net salez during the third quarter, according to the company's Nov. 30 filingf with the Securities and ExchangeCommission (SEC). But same-store sales dropped 3.4 percenf for the quarter. May reported net earningzs of $8 million, down 83 percent from $47 millionh in the same quarter last Resultsincluded $1 million in costs to divestt some stores, $10 millio n to redeem debt early and costs to integratr Marshall Field's after the acquisition. On July 20, the companyg issued $2.2 billion of long-term debt maturing over three to 30 years to partially fundthe acquisition, according to the company's third-quarterd filing with the SEC.
In May increased its unsecured revolvinyg credit facilityto $1.4 billion and extended the term to Augusr 2009. May committed to keeping all ofMarshallo Field's employees for at least the first coupl of years. Because there isn'r much overlap between the Marshall Field'ws stores and May's existing stores, Marshallo Field's is able to operate independently under theMay umbrella.