ON THE BLOCK

The Gap Inc. (NYSE:GPS) is not doing too well. The San Francisco specialty apparel maker, whose brand holdings include The Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy, has struggled with negative performance for the past several years, leading to the possibility of a sale. According to reports, The Gap has hired Goldman Sachs & Co. to study its options. Also, two senior executives, Denise Johnston, the president of The Gap’s Adult unit, and Ivy Ross, who headed product design for Old Navy, reportedly left the company in January after The Gap disclosed poor Christmas profits. The Gap cut its 2007 earnings projection in January for the third time in six months, according to reports, and is in the middle of a review of its Gap and Old Navy strategies that it plans to provide a report on no later than March 1. In a note to investors Jan. 9, AG Edwards analyst Robert F. Buchanan said he saw limited upside to the company’s stock “even in the event a private-equity or some other buyer emerges.”

Northwest Airlines Inc. (OTC:NWACQ.PK), the nation’s struggling, fifth-ranked airline, in December hired the advisory and investment firm Evercore Partners to look at mergers and acquisitions possibilities. The airline filed a reorganization plan as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy in mid-January, according to reports. Further, reports have said that the airline is in talks with Delta Air Lines Inc., the nation’s third-largest airline, about a potential merger. For its part, Delta is in the process of trying to fight off a hostile takeover by US Airways Group Inc.

Admiral Bay Resources Inc. (TSX.V: ADB), a gas production company focused on the development of projects in the Cherokee Basin in southeast Kansas and the Appalachian Basin in Pennsylvania, said in early January that its board had agreed to hire RBC Capital Markets to consider a sale of the company. Admiral Bay, of Centennial, Colo., announced Dec. 15 that it had received a sale offer from another public company.

McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE:MCD) has told employees it is thinking of putting its Boston Market fast food chain on the market, according to reports, in order to concentrate on the burger business. McDonald’s first bought Boston Market in 1999 for $173.5 million in a bankruptcy auction to diversify its holdings.