Pets United Buys State Line Tack

| Tim Parry

PetSmart in April sold its State Line Tack equine assets to Pets United, a privately held multichannel merchant of pet and equine products. The sale includes the State Line Tack catalog, inventory, and customer lists.

Tales from the Front

| MCM staff

Home sweet home While we normally can’t afford the wares in the Williams-Sonoma Home catalog, we were recently inspired to splurge on some pillowcases

M&S Fine Foods Buys Impromptu Gourmet

| Tim Parry

With its acquisition of the Impromptu Gourmet catalog, M&S Fine Foods isn’t merely adding another title to its holdings. M&S is hoping to use the brand to build a chain of Impromptu Gourmet stores.

Until We Meet Again

| Sherry Chiger

“Can you show me a dream? Can you show me one that’s better than mine? Can you stand it in the cold light of day? Neither can I.”–Ronnie Lane, “Glad and Sorry”

Movers & Shakers

| MCM staff

San Francisco-based Sharper Image Corp. has hired Rebecca L. Roedell as chief financial officer. Roedell, who had been chief financial officer/senior

Google’s New Search: Universal, and Far from Remote

| Brian Quinton

(Searchline) Google’s made a major change in the way it displays its general search results. And while the impact may at first be small, the significance of that change will grow over time and eventually ripple through the very concept of optimizing Web pages for search.

Equity Firm to Buy CDW

| Jim Tierney

CDW Corp. announced on May 30 that it has agreed to be bought by private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners for approximately $7.3 billion.