Federated Department Stores Inc. made terms to buy for $10.4 billion in cash and stock.
The Monday deal is expected to create a powerful chain with more than 950 department stores, 700 bridal and formalwear stores and $30 billion in annual sales.

The unified Federated and May are expected to be led by Cincinnati-based Federated’s chairman and chief executive, Terry Lundgren.

Federated Department Stores Inc. is supposed to transform Foley’s stores into Macy’s and to expand its Bloomingdale’s stores into new markets.

"Within a year, you are going to see Macy’s stores in every mall in America," said C. Britt Beemer, chairman of Charleston, S.C.-based America’s Research Group.

May already operates 11 Foley’s stores in Colorado and three more are planned to be built in Denver, Westminster and Loveland.

"The new shoppers, and the new shoppers spending money, are really being driven in the prestige department stores," said Wendy Liebmann, president of consultancy WSL Strategic Retail in New York . "That would be a consumer opportunity, if they saw that as another brand they could wrap around the market."

"While it’s been talked [about] in some of the analysts’ reports that they have a lot of moderate stores, that’s true, but they also have a lot of fantastically higher-end stores, and we know that for a fact," he said, referring to May.