This week’s dealing and wheeling.
JP Morgan Chase & Co. is buying Kohl’s Corp.’s private label credit card accounts and associated outstanding balances for an expected $1.5 billion in cash. The exact price will equal the receivables balances at the closing date. Kohl’s will continue handling customer service, advertising, and marketing for the portfolio, and gets an unstated percentage of future payments. All Kohl’s credit card employees remain employees of Kohl’s. The retailer, which operates 741 stores in 41 states, expects to open about 500 stores over the next five years; it hopes to be operating more than 1,200 stores by the end of 2010. (Contact: JP Morgan Chase & Co., 212-270-7013; Kohl’s Corp., 262-703-1893)
E-monee.com Inc. has merged with Coffaro Family Products Inc. and will be operating under the E-monee name. Terms were not disclosed. E-monee,which had been privately held, now trades on the Pink Sheets under the Coffaro Family Products ticker symbol, CFRF. It has a mobile banking platform aimed at the unbanked that E-monee calls its Global Electronic Treasury System. For the 2004 fiscal year, E-monee reported $1.6 million in assets and a net loss of ($140,526). The merged company’s stock closed on March 17 at $0.32. (Contact: E-monee.com Inc., 954-229-3011)
Obopay says it raised $10 million in first-round funding from investors that include Redpoint Ventures, ONSET Ventures, and New York-based Richmond Management. Obopay has a mobile payments platform that lets subscribers get, send and spend money from their cell phones. (Contact: Obopay, 866-262-7373)