Staples Succeeds in Corporate Express Bid

| MCM staff

After three failed attempts in the past four months, the drama has ended: Office supplies cataloger Staples announced on June 11 it has finally acquired office products distributor Corporate Express

Airgas to Acquire Oilind Safety

| MCM staff

Airgas, a marketer of specialty gases, welding and safety equipment has agreed to acquire the assets and operations of Energy Safety Services, doing business as Oilind Safety.

1-800-Flowers.com buys DesignPac Gifts

| Jim Tierney

Multititle mailer 1-800-Flowers.com announced on May 1 it has acquired DesignPac Gifts for $36 million. DesignPac Gifts, which did $50 million in sales

The Ballad of Bellas Hess

| Ray Schultz

Did you ever wonder what Bellas Hess was besides a name on a Supreme Court decision? It was one of the big-five general merchandise

MacKenzie-Childs acquired

| Jim Tierney

Private equity firm Twin Lakes Capital acquired ceramics manufacturer/marketer MacKenzie-Childs on May 7. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. MacKenzie-Childs,

Oriental Trading’s new chief

| Jim Tierney

What does a guy whose strengths are high-tech product lines, Website savvy and international marketing know about running a low-end gifts and novelties

Social discourse

| MCM staff

The easiest way to build a community around your brand is to create a dialog with your customers. If Web 1.0 was a monologue or broadcast, then Web 2.0

E-appending done right

| Ken Magill

With postage and paper costs on a never ending march upward, e-mail appending in which a third party matches permission-based e-mail names to a merchant’s

Deal making stumbles

| Jim Tierney

You might think that the grim economy would prompt a flurry of mergers and acquisitions. But not so, or perhaps more accurately, not yet. The level of