A.B. Lambdin joins the Carabella family

| Mark Del Franco

Three months after Beverly, MA-based women’s apparel cataloger/retailer Appleseed’s acquired the brand name and customer file of The Tog Shop, the remaining

CRITICAL ISSUES & TRENDS

| Sherry Chiger

It’s enough to make you break out into a chorus of “Happy Days Are Here Again”: An impressive 74% of respondents to Multichannel Merchant’s 2005 Benchmark

Office furniture mailer sold

| Mark Del Franco

Patience is a virtue that has paid off for Takkt, the Stuttgart, Germany-based multititle merchant whose U.S. properties include industrial supplier K+K

Pets United buys Country Supply

| Mark Del Franco

Hazelton, PA-based pet products marketer Pets United in November acquired the assets of Ottumwa, IA-based Country Supply, a catalog and online merchant

UPS Announces 2006 Rate Hikes

| John Fischer

United Parcel Service announced rate hikes for most of its U.S. small-package services, effective Jan. 2. The new rates include a 3.9% increase in commercial ground services and a 5.5% increase in air and international services.

Claiborne Offers $366 Million for J. Jill

| MCM staff

New York-based apparel manufacturer Liz Claiborne is trying yet again to
acquire the outstanding shares of Hingham, MA-based cataloger/retailer
The J. Jill Group.

Takkt Homes in on National Business Furniture

| Mark Del Franco

Milwaukee-based National Business Furniture has agreed to be acquired by Takkt, the Stuttgart, Germany-based multititle merchant whose U.S. properties include industrial supplier K+K America.

PFSweb to Acquire eCost.com

| MCM staff

Plano, TX-based PFSweb hopes to go beyond offering e-commerce solutions for online merchants to becoming an online merchant: It has agreed to buy online discount retailer eCost.com