Luxury department store chain Nordstrom (JWN) revealed a new employee retention program as part of its planned merger with Norse Holdings. The company will pay some of its executives cash bonuses to keep them around during and after the merger. Chief Customer Officer Kenneth Worzel leads this with a $1.79 million bonus to continue working for the company.
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Other executives included in the Norse Holdings merger bonus plan are Chief Financial Officer Catherine Smith and Chief Technology and Information Officer Jason Morris. The cash bonuses include $1.75 million for Smith and $1.66 million for Morris.
These bonuses will be split into three instead of being paid all at once. The first will be issued to the executives shortly after the Nordstrom merger is completed. The second and third installments will be paid on the first and second anniversaries of the merger’s closure. This helps ensure the executives stick around after the merger is complete.
Details of the Nordstrom Merger
Nordstrom and Norse Holdings first announced the planned merger in late December 2024. The two companies expect the deal to close in the first half of 2025. The merger will combine Nordstrom with Norse subsidiary Navy Acquisition Co. Inc. Nordstrom will survive the merger and become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Norse Holdings.
As part of this merger agreement, Nordstrom will be acquired by the Nordstrom family and El Puerto de Liverpool, S.A.B. de C.V. This will result in the company going private, meaning its shares will no longer trade publicly. Investors are being offered $23 per share in cash for their JWN stock.
Is JWN Stock a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, the analysts’ consensus rating for Nordstrom is Hold based on 10 Hold and three Sell ratings over the last three months. With that comes an average price target of $23.50, a high of $25, and a low of $21. This represents a potential 2.77% downside for JWN shares.
