On The Block

Barnes & Noble Inc.’s (NYSE: BKS) board will search every nook and cranny as it evaluates business options for the bookstore chain. The decision to review alternatives, including the sale of the entire company, was prompted by the directors’ view that the company’s stock is significantly undervalued. Lazard was hired as financial adviser and Morris Nichols Arsht & Tunnell LLP will serve as legal adviser. Leonard Riggio, Barnes & Noble’s founder and largest stockholder, is considering making a bid for the company through an investor group.

Resource America Inc.’s board formed a special committee of independent directors to evaluate strategic alternatives. The group will consider simplifying the Philadelphia-based company’s businesses. The asset manager may also decide to divest non-core assets, pursue privatization or the sale of the entire company. Resource America hired FBR Capital Markets as a financial adviser and Stevens & Lee as legal adviser. Resource America’s losses for the third quarter ended June 30 widened to $6.6 million from $191,000 a year earlier. Revenue rose to $25.2 million from $22.6 million.

Minneapolis, Minn.-based Regis Corp. received board approval to mull over options to enhance shareholder value. The owner and franchisor of beauty salons hired Peter J. Solomon Co. LP as financial adviser and both Faegre & Benson LLP and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz as legal advisers. Regis’s total sales for the fiscal year ended June 30 fell to $2.36 billion from $2.43 billion a year earlier. Same-store sales for the period also dropped 3.1 percent. Regis had more than 12,700 locations worldwide at the end of March.

Bumble Bee Foods LP has made a buzz by hiring J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. as a financial adviser. The San Diego-based company plans to explore strategic alternatives, including selling the entire company, or individual subsidiaries. Other options under review include mergers and potential business combinations. Centre Partners Management LLC owns the consumer package goods maker through Connors Bros. Income Fund, which it acquired in November 2008.