Financial News

SAN FRANCISCO — McKesson and PSS World Medical on Thursday announced that the two companies have signed a definitive agreement under which McKesson will acquire all outstanding shares of PSS World Medical for $29 per share in cash in a deal valued at $2.1 billion. 

NEW YORK — The jewel in the Supervalu crown — Save-A-Lot — may be up for bid by investment firm KKR, according to a Wall Street Journal blog post published Thursday. 

Also in the hunt is Cerberus Capital Management, which is weighing a bid for all of Supervalu, WSJ reported, citing persons familiar with the matter. However, Cerberus may also look at bidding for only pieces of the grocer. 

Reportedly in the bid for the wholesale end of Supervalu's business is C&S Wholesale Grocers.   

Dallas -- A survey released Tuesday by Chase Paymentech, a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase & Co., found that online companies are expecting the 2012 holiday shopping season to be better than last year.

According to the Chase Paymentech eHoliday Shopping Monitor, 59% of e-commerce companies surveyed expect better sales volume this season than in 2011, while almost half (47%) expect it to be better than pre-recession levels in 2007.

NEW YORK — Pfizer is buying the maker of an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder drug for almost $700 million, Pfizer said Monday.

The drug maker announced that it would buy privately owned NextWave Pharmaceuticals, which makes the extended-release ADHD drug Quillivant XR (methylphenidate hydrochloride), which the Food and Drug Administration approved last month. The drug is expected to appear in pharmacies in January 2013.

NEW YORK – Watson Pharmaceuticals and Actavis will have to divest rights to almost two dozen drugs as a condition for U.S. regulatory approval of their $5.6 billion merger announced earlier this year, according to regulatory documents.

CLEVELAND – Greeting card maker American Greetings announced last week that its board has formed a committee of independent directors to consider an offer to privatize the company, reported the Associated Press.

According to AP, CEO Zev Weiss and his brother, president and COO Jeffrey Weiss, along with other investors and executives, submitted a proposal to the board on Sept. 25. The group wants to buy all of the company's common stock that it doesn't already own for $17.18 per share, valuing American Greetings at approximately $581 million.

MINNEAPOLIS — While Supervalu has completed its overhaul of its value proposition across its Jewel-Osco banner, the grocer will be analyzing the impact before replicating the price repositioning across its entire chain, the Minnesota-based supermarket chain announced Thursday morning. "We continue to have a market-leading price position amongst conventional food retailers in three markets," Wayne Sales, Supervalu president, CEO and chairman told analysts during the second-quarter conference call.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — H.D. Smith, one of the largest pharmaceutical wholesalers in the United States, announced plans to acquire Valley Wholesale Drug in a merger agreement transaction.

The acquisition will increase H. D. Smith’s customer base in California and give the wholesaler an opportunity to expand into the Pacific Northwest, a market in which it currently has a limited reach.