Bass Pro Shops Is Still Buying Cabela’s, But For Less Money

Since the $5.5 billion deal where Bass Pro Shops agreed to acquire Cabela’s was announced last October, a few things related to the deal have changed. Now the companies have announced that the deal is going forward, but at a price cut of $4 per share of Cabela’s, and the addition of a middleman in the sale of its credit card operations to Capital One.

What’s changed since last fall that makes Cabela’s worth less now? Since the merger was first proposed, there have been a record number of retail bankruptcies and chain retailers paring down their inventory of stores.

That includes competing destination sporting goods chain Gander Mountain, which filed for bankruptcy and announced plans to close 32 stores. It also didn’t help that Cabela’s had poor sales results in the important fourth quarter of the year, the Omaha World-Herald reports.

However, the price cut is mostly because of changes in the sale of the Cabela’s credit card business. Capital One, the proposed buyer of Cabela’s banking and credit card businesses, had to back out of the deal due to an unrelated regulatory situation that would have delayed the merger significantly.

Instead, Synovus Financial Corp will purchase World’s Foremost Bank, the very modestly-named banking and credit card operations of Cabela’s. Synovus will hold on to $1.2 billion in brokered certificates of deposit, while immediately selling the Cabela Club Visa business to Capital One.

While the deal still faces Federal Trade Commission scrutiny, the companies involved still expect it to close sometime in the summer or fall of 2017.