Lease-to-own retailer Aaron’s agreed to buy BrandsMart from the Perlman family for $230 million in cash, said the buyer Wednesday. The transaction, which is expected to close in Q2, would give Aaron’s access to BrandMart’s big-box store format and to product assortments it doesn’t currently carry, plus offer BrandsMart customers new “in-house” lease-to-own payment options they didn’t previously have, it said. Aaron’s reported $1.85 billion in 2021 revenue. Privately held BrandsMart had $757 million in 2021 sales, said Aaron’s: “With this transaction, we believe that Aaron's will deliver over $3 billion in total annual revenues.” BrandsMart runs 10 stores in Florida and Georgia, plus has a "growing e-commerce channel," said Aaron's CEO Douglas Lindsay on a Thursday investor call. Its stores average $75 million in annual revenue, and have an average store size of more than 100,000 square feet, he said. "BrandsMart attracts a loyal and diverse customer base by offering hundreds of brands and thousands of products with best-in-class pricing," said Lindsay. The BrandsMart buy "broadens our customer reach and significantly expands our total addressable market," he said. "We expect to operate Aaron's and BrandsMart as separate business segments, each operating under their current brand." The transaction also yields "significant purchasing power and cost synergies," he said. Aaron's plans to open one or two new BrandsMart stores a year "in adjacent geographic areas where BrandsMart enjoys strong brand recognition," said Lindsay: "We will be disciplined in executing the BrandsMart new store-opening initiative as we explore the many markets that could support their store model."

Voice game publisher Volley acquired Question of the Day, a voice trivia game on the Amazon Alexa platform, the company said Wednesday. Terms weren’t disclosed. Question of the Day is available on Alexa-based and Google Assistant devices, it said.

Goldman Sachs plans to close on buying Iowa's ImOn Communications in 2022's first half, said the companies Thursday. They said the deal will provide resources to accelerate ImOn's spending on fiber data, video and voice services in eastern Iowa. Goldman said ImOn fits as part of its focus on infrastructure investing. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

Nvidia “appreciated the regulatory concerns” expressed over its proposed $40 billion Arm buy from SoftBank, said CEO Jensen Huang on an earnings call Wednesday for fiscal Q4 ended Jan. 30. Nvidia and SoftBank agreed last week to terminate the transaction after the FTC sued in December to block the sale, saying it would stifle competing next-generation technologies (see 2202080003). Nvidia for more than a year “worked closely with SoftBank and Arm to explain our vision for Arm and reassure regulators that Nvidia would be a worthy steward of the Arm ecosystem,” said Huang. “We gave it our best shot, but the headwinds were too strong, and we could not give regulators the comfort they needed to approve our deal.” Nvidia’s work in “accelerated computing” and its overall strategy “will continue as before,” he said. The 20-year “architectural” license to Arm's intellectual property that Nvidia gets to keep under the termination clauses of its September 2020 transaction agreement with SoftBank “allows us the full breadth and flexibility of options across technologies and markets,” he said. The stock closed 7.6% lower Thursday at $245.07.

Italian automation company Nice is consolidating all Nortek essential operations in the U.S. under the Nice brand following its purchase of Nortek Control last fall for $285 million (see 2110130059), it said Wednesday. It will position Nice as one of the largest single-source manufacturers of smart home and building automation in the North American market, said the company. Integrators, dealers and distribution partners will benefit from “access to greater opportunities with a broader solutions portfolio of integrated smart and connected products,” it said. Nortek’s 2Gig, Elan, Linear, Mighty Mule, SpeakerCraft, Proficient, Furman, Panamax, Gefen, Numera, Intellivision, Abode and HySecurity brands “will continue to go to market as brands of Nice” but under their existing brands, it said. “The newly enlarged and strengthened presence of Nice North America further reinforces our commitment to our partners, customers, and the channel,” said Nice North America CEO Edoardo Malfe. The larger portfolio created by Nice acquisitions enables delivery of "solutions to partners and end-users from a single-source provider of a full suite of integrated solutions for residential, commercial, industrial and government customers, from consumer DIY to custom and professionally-installed specialized products and high-security applications,” Malfe said. Among the executive changes announced Wednesday, Paul Williams, formerly with GE Lighting, joined Nice as chief product officer, and Lisa Potok, former Newegg finance vice president, was named chief financial officer. Luca Longhin, who was president of HySecurity, Abode and Nice Canada, was named deputy CEO-Nice North America. Internally promoted were Amanda Repp to chief people and diversity officer, a new role; Jim Hardiman to general manager-China Innovation Center; Jari Niemela to chief technology officer; Craig Copley to chief information officer; Mark Burson to chief marketing officer; and Daniel Schatz to general counsel, the company said. No brands were discontinued in the consolidation, and no positions have been eliminated to date, a spokeswoman emailed.

Resideo acquired regional distributor Arrow Wire & Cable, it said Monday. Arrow’s three warehouse stocking locations serve the West Coast and will be part of Resideo’s ADI Global Distribution business. Arrow carries copper and fiber cabling, connectors, racking solutions and network equipment. Transaction terms weren't disclosed.

Projecting that Intel’s proposed Tower Semiconductor buy for $5.4 billion will take about a year to complete allows the parties “adequate time to go through the various regulatory processes and approvals,” said Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger on a Tuesday “business update” call with analysts. “We do expect, given the highly complementary nature of the Tower assets versus the Intel assets, that there will be a very smooth process,” he said. “But regulatory approvals do take some amount of time.” Intel and Tower anticipate approvals “across the various geographies” in which they operate, including China, he said. Gelsinger said his “expectation” is to “fully merge” Intel Foundry Services and Tower “into a single foundry business for Intel going forward,” while leveraging Tower’s management expertise in running a global foundry for three decades. When IFS was launched nearly a year ago, customers asked if specialty technologies and mature modes could be added “to our portfolio,” said IFS President Randhir Thakur. With Tower specializing in those businesses, and soon coming under Intel’s control, “we can honor that request,” he said. Announcement of the proposed transaction sent Tower's stock soaring throughout the day Tuesday before closing 42.1% higher at $47.07. Intel finished the day up 1.8% to $48.44.

The Nvidia-SoftBank agreement last week to terminate Nvidia’s proposed $40 billion Arm buy because of regulatory hurdles (see 2202080003) “will preserve competition for key technologies and safeguard future innovation,” said FTC Bureau of Competition Director Holly Vedova in a statement Monday. “This result is particularly significant because it represents the first abandonment of a litigated vertical merger in many years.” The FTC sued Dec. 2 to block the transaction, saying the combined firm would “stifle competing next-generation technologies.” FTC attorneys, with Nvidia and SoftBank lawyers, filed a joint motion at the commission Feb. 8 to dismiss the complaint, saying the decision to terminate the proposed deal rendered the litigation “now moot.”

Harman bought Apostera, a German automotive technology company, it said Thursday. Apostera’s AR, machine learning, computer vision and sensor fusion technologies, combined with Harman's digital cockpit, will “bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds,” said Christian Sobottka, president-Harman automotive division. Apostera’s employees will join Harman’s automotive unit. Terms weren't disclosed.

The Hart-Scott-Rudino waiting period for Discovery's acquisition of AT&T's spun-off WarnerMedia (see 2105160003) expired Wednesday, Discovery said in an SEC filing that day.