Speculation is rampant that luxury department stores Saks Inc. (New York) and Neiman Marcus (Dallas) may be merged under KKR & Co. LP (New York), a private equity firm, MSN Money reports. KKR is reportedly eyeing the idea of pushing Saks to merge with Neiman Marcus; however, there is no direct evidence that the company has even approached New York-based Saks Inc., according to MSN Money.
Nonetheless, both department chains have reportedly hired financial advisors to explore potential options. If the companies were to join, it would create the second largest department store behind Nordstrom (Seattle). Both MSN Money and Bloomberg report that the idea of combining the retailers arose a few years ago, but was eventually refuted, after it was decided that the companies would be hard to differentiate from one another.