In the retail world, Saks Global executive chairman and newly appointed CEO Richard Baker is known for having the opposite of the “Midas touch” when it comes to dealmaking.
The real estate scion bought the Lord & Taylor department store chain in 2006 and then sold it in 2019 as a shell of its former itself—after which its new owner shut its brick-and-mortar stores the following year. Ditto the Hudson’s Bay chain in Canada, which Baker bought in 2008, only to liquidate it last year, ending a 355-year run in business. Baker’s HBC conglomerate, the precursor to Saks Global, bought the online flash sales website Gilt Groupe a decade ago but quickly dumped it, selling it at a loss in 2018. And his troubles extended to overseas adventures: Baker’s attempt to launch Hudson’s Bay stores in the Netherlands in 2017 was a monumental flop, with the Dutch stores closing two years later.
Indeed most of the chains Baker has touched in the last two decades have failed—and reports over the weekend suggest the Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, and Bergdorf Goodman luxury department stores that he brought together in a 2024 deal that created Saks Global could be heading to bankruptcy court soon. (The company had been known as Hudson’s Bay Company for years, but switched to Saks Global when Baker spun out Saks and bought its arch-rival Neiman.)
