Well it's started.This is what happens when a U.S. businessman takes over a Canadian company and has no sense of history. Canadians have once again lost control of another Canadian institution and will suffer for it. Read below and remember this is but the first step by a man that is thinking only about making money.
Hudson's Bay Co. sells credit card, financial services arm for $370M
Related Symbols: T.HBC
2/7/2006 7:11:00 AM
TORONTO (CP) - Retailer Hudson's Bay Co. (TSX: HBC), Canada's oldest company, is selling its private-label credit card and related financial services business to GE Money for net proceeds of about $370 million.
GE Money, the Canadian consumer lending unit of General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE), will also have a 10-year alliance with the department store chain.
The deal announced Tuesday comes less than a month after HBC's board of directors unanimously endorsed a sweetened $15.25-per-share takeover offer from a company controlled by U.S. businessman Jerry Zucker.
Founded in 1670, the retailer has been under pressure to revitalize its retail operations, which include more than 500 outlets across Canada, led by the Bay and Zellers chains.
After the GE deal, "HBC customers will be able to continue to use their HBC cards and will continue to enjoy access to the HBC rewards program and other cardholder benefits as they do today, as well as a broader range of financial products in the future," the company said in a release.
Under the 10-year alliance, GE Money will provide credit marketing and analytic support, credit servicing and customer care for HBC's 3.1 million retail cardholders.
The deal will include the transfer of about 650 HBC employees directly involved in HBC's financial services business to GE Money. The employees will continue to work at their current locations in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
GE Money has 600 employees at its headquarters in Mississauga, Ont., and its operations centre in Edmonton.
On Monday, Hudson's Bay Co. chose IBM to build, host and manage a revitalized Hbc.com shopping website under a five-year, multimillion-dollar outsourcing agreement.
Those two companies worked together on an online Olympic merchandise store after HBC was selected last year as official outfitter of Canada's Olympic athletes through 2012, starting with this year's Winter Games in Turin, Italy.
© The Canadian Press, 2005