“The purchase of all of Finish Line would provide leverage for Sports Direct’s total operation as well as provide better vendor terms from the likes of Nike, Adidas, Under Armour and others.”

Sports Direct, which was founded in 1982 by British billionaire Mike Ashley and now has 455 sports stores in the U.K., has rapidly expanded its interests in the American market. Sports Direct, majority owned by its chief executive Mike Ashley, is under pressure after a Guardian investigation in 2015 into its working conditions and investor criticism of its corporate governance standards. The company said the acquisition of about 50 stores would “provide Sports Direct with a footprint in U.S. bricks-and-mortar retail and a platform from which to grow U.S. online sales.”

Earlier this week the retail giant took a significant stake in Finish Line that had at least one market watcher speculating a takeover was on the horizon. After their parent company went bankrupt twice in one year, sporting goods chains Bob’s and Eastern Mountain Sports have a new owner: Sports Direct, which already operates hundreds of stores in Europe and has had its eye on U.S. expansion for a while.
British sports retailer Sports Direct agreed to acquire the American retail chains Bob's Stores and Eastern Mountain Sports for $101 million out of bankruptcy.