I just saw on the news feed in our building that Jo Ann's agreed to a buy out? Anyone hear anything further??

Companies: Jo-Ann Stores (JAS) said Thursday it was being acquired by private-equity firm Leonard Green & Partners for $1.6 billion, or $61 per share in cash. The stock surged by 33% in early trading.

thank you for the information - was just wondering how to shift my buying habits...

Have a very Merry Christmas!

I wonder what this will mean to their products and prices?

Gads, can't anything stay the same in this world??????? Will be interesting to see the change that's going to happen!

Who else does Leonard Green, et al. own though??

this explains the current frustration of the condition and stocking of the stores in the last 6 months - it can only get better (I hope)

Maybe it will end up being a good thing :D:D:D

I Googled it!

Shopping’s Buyout Shop of the Moment
By DEALBOOK
Retailers have been prominent buyout targets again this year, and one private equity firm has been particularly busy: Leonard Green & Partners.

Leonard Green’s $1.6 billion deal for Jo-Ann Stores on Thursday follows fast on the heels of the $3 billion deal for J. Crew by the firm and TPG Capital.

Leonard Green, a Los Angeles-based buyout shop, has been a buyer in 15 transactions so far this year, according to Capital IQ. The J. Crew buyout is its biggest. Earlier in the year, the firm had been linked to speculation swirling around a buyout offer for BJ’s Wholesale Club.

Leonard Green has a long history in investing in retail and consumer brands. The firm’s namesake founder was one of the pioneers in the buyout business.

Leonard Green and Edward Gibbons, who were both executives of McDonnell & Company, a brokerage firm, founded Gibbons, Green, van Amerongen, a New York firm that specialized in management-led buyouts, in 1969. Among its deals was the $450 million acquisition of Foodmaker from Ralston Purina in 1985 and the $520 million buyout of Budget Rent-a-Car from Transamerica in 1986.

Mr. Green left the firm in 1989 to establish his own Los Angeles-based shop, Leonard Green & Partners. The firm has invested in 52 companies with a total value of $44 billion since 1989. Mr. Green, who was also a major patron of opera in Los Angeles, died in 2002 at the age of 68.

Today, the firm says it has $9 billion in equity capital under management. Its three managing partners, John G. Danhakl, Peter J. Nolan and Jonathan Sokoloff, have worked together since 1986, according to the firm’s Web site.

Leonard Green says it is able to complete deals of as much as $5 billion in enterprise value but that most transactions will be $500 million to $2 billion.

“Our investment philosophy is to target cash flow positive businesses that have the ability to grow by at least 50 percent over a five-year period,” it says.

Buy-outs by groups like this, only interested in grabbing as much money as they can and with no genuine interest in the business, usually don't work out well. Very sad to hear this.