Deal Dispatch: Big Retailers Wreak Halloween Havoc On Sugar Land Candy Company

This year’s Halloween isn’t so sweet for CandyWarehouse.com. The Sugar Land, Texas-based company went bankrupt, listing up to $500,000 in assets.

President Mimi Kwan told Today.com that the small, family-run company struggled to compete with Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Target (NYSE:TGT), and Walmart (NYSE:WMT). As a result, CandyWarehouse filed for Chapter 11 with $10 million in debt.

But Kwan insists this is a restructuring, not a sugar crash — and that Candy Warehouse will keep the confectionery operating.

Meanwhile, cocoa prices have been climbing all year due to tariffs. That means your Halloween haul might cost a little more this year.

New On The Block

• Roark Capital, owner of Subway and Dave's Hot Chicken, is prepping to serve up Nothing Bundt Cakes. According to Reuters, the Atlanta-based private equity firm hopes to fetch a sweet $2 billion valuation. North Point Advisors and Bank of America are running the auction starting early next year. Roark, in true PE fashion, is attempting to exit the investment just four years after buying it. Since then, Nothing Bundt locations have doubled to nearly 700 shops. The Dallas-born bakery chain projects about $120 million in EBITDA by 2026.

• Forge Global (NYSE:FRGE), a New York-based platform for trading private company shares, is exploring a sale. It went public in 2021 via a SPAC at a $2 billion valuation. Its market cap is currently below $300 million. According to the Financial Times, Forge is expected to attract interest from competing marketplaces and large financial institutions.

More Bankruptcy Updates

• Phil McGraw, known for his talk show “Dr. Phil,” has lost a trial that will decide the fate of his media startup's bankruptcy. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Scott Everett on Tuesday turned down a bid by Dr. Phil to keep the case in Chapter 11. It will now proceed as a Chapter 7 liquidation. A trustee will oversee the sale of Merit Street's assets, including what's left of its media library. Litigation over whether the TV host swindled Trinity Broadcasting under a $500 million, 10-year deal, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Updates From The Block

• Publicis (PARIS:PUB) is acquiring Hepmil Media Group, a Singapore-based company that creates memes and other content for brands. Hepmil has raised over $11 million from investors including Bent Pixels, Pavilion Capital, Quest Ventures, MSW Ventures, and 137 Capital.

• Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) has agreed to purchase Clario Holdings, a Philadelphia-based drug trial software company, for $8.8 billion in cash, plus up to $525 million in earnouts. The deal involves sellers Astorg, Nordic Capital, Novo Holdings and Cinven.

• Aramco purchased a minority stake in AI company Humain, Reuters reported. Humain, majority-owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, also signed up to a $3-billion data center construction deal with Blackstone’s Airtrunk.

• Securitize, a platform specializing in tokenizing real-world assets (RWAs), will go public through a merger with Cantor Equity Partners II, a SPAC sponsored by Cantor Fitzgerald. The deal values Securitize at $1.25 billion. Dealmakers expect the transaction to close by January, with the combined entity trading on Nasdaq under the ticker SECZ. The merger will generate $465 million in gross proceeds, including $225 million from private investors. Securitize has already tokenized over $4 billion in assets and plans to digitize its equity. CEO Carlos Domingo told CNBC the future of finance is fully on-chain, capitalizing on the rapid growth of digital assets.

• Francisco Partners is buying Jamf (NASDAQ:JAMF), an Apple device management software company, in an all-cash deal valued at approximately $2.2 billion. Jamf will retain its name and headquarters post-acquisition, which is expected to close in early 2026. Due to the pending transaction, Jamf canceled its third-quarter conference call.

• Mastercard (NYSE:MA) wants to buy Zerohash for about $1.5 billion, according to Axios. Zerohash is a provider of crypto and stablecoin infrastructure. Morgan Stanley, SoFi, Apollo, Northwestern Mutual, Bain Capital and Point72 Ventures are just some of its backers.

Off The Block

• Centralis Group, a global alternative asset and corporate services provider, completed its transaction with HGGC. The firms first reached an agreement in February. Since then, the deal has passed all regulatory approvals. Centralis offers services including fund administration, capital markets, and governance solutions, primarily for alternative investment managers and multinational corporations. Following the deal, HGGC's David Chung and Matt Roesch joined Centralis’ board.

• Bending Spoons, an Italian tech company, wants to give AOL a second (or third?) wind. After it announced the $2.8 billion debt deal, Axios reported that Bending Spoons raised $710 million, led by T. Rowe Price, at an $11 billion pre-money valuation. Previous owners fumbled AOL, which is renowned for its dial-up function and iconic “You’ve Got Mail” sound. Verizon (NYSE:VZ) bought it in 2015. And in 2021, Apollo Global Management (NYSE:APO) acquired it for $5 billion (the deal included another former internet giant, Yahoo).

For the previous edition of Deal Dispatch, click here.

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