D E Shaw Co

The Parent Co., a Denver online retailer of products for children and babies, filed for bankruptcy protection after sales plunged. Nine affiliates, including EToys Direct, BabyUniverse, Dreamtime Baby, PoshTots, Gift Acquisition and My Twinn, also sought protection. The company listed assets of $20.6 million and debt of $35.7 million in Chapter 11 documents filed in Wilmington, Del.

D.E. Shaw & Co. raised its stake in Lexar Media Inc. to 7.9%, becoming the third-largest shareholder and signaling it might enter the fight over Micron Technology Inc.'s $680-million bid for the company. New York-based D.E. Shaw, a hedge fund run by David Shaw, announced its stake in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund follows Elliott Associates and billionaire Carl Icahn in buying shares of Lexar.

Lawrence H. Summers, the former U.S. Treasury secretary who resigned as Harvard University's president this year after clashes with faculty members, will join New York hedge fund firm D.E. Shaw & Co. as a part-time managing director. "Larry is an enormously gifted economist and has made major contributions as a researcher, a public servant and an academic leader," David Shaw, chairman of the $25-billion fund manager, said in a statement Thursday.

Retailer FAO Inc. said a judge approved the sale of certain FAO Schwarz assets to investment and technology development group D.E. Shaw for about $41 million. The assets include FAO Schwarz's flagship store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, a second store in Las Vegas, and its catalog and Internet businesses.

KB Toys Inc., the largest U.S. mall-based toy retailer, sold its Internet assets to investment firm D.E. Shaw for $7.4 million as it tried to emerge from bankruptcy protection. D.E. Shaw, a New York-based firm that this year bought FAO Inc.'s FAO Schwarz stores in New York and Las Vegas, also will make royalty payments of at least $500,000 a year for the next three years, the firm said. The purchase includes inventory, equipment and the EToys trademarks. D.E.