Hudson’s Bay Company, having reached the crucial decision-making moment of whether to go away or go private, is choosing the latter. This morning, the Canadian-based retailing conglomerate announced its majority ownership would take the company private, saying that as a non-public company it could better weather the troubled waters of the retail world, not to mention investors. This ongoing teardown will essentially leave HBC with three pieces: its namesake department store operation in Canada, Saks Fifth Avenue and the remaining Saks Off Fifth stores. And Nordstrom’s founding family has floated two trial balloons to take the company private, but neither was well received, and the retailer remains publicly traded. With Hudson’s Bay founded in 1670 as a trading company, more than three centuries later, the trades continue.

Source: Forbes June 10, 2019 15:33 UTC