Where some see failure, others see opportunity.

Off-price retailer Ross Stores says there may be an upside, at least for it, to the handful of retailers who have gone belly-up this past year, hurt by tight credit markets, higher costs and a decline in consumer spending.

More bankrupt retailers means less competition for customers, as well as the opportunity for Ross to snag leftover merchandise at fire-sale prices.

“The environment might be better than most of us think for the retailers who are surviving,” Ross Chief Executive Michael Balmuth said during a call with analysts. 

“Who knows, if post the election, things are going to get better in the economy. I don’t think anyone is really forecasting that, so we continue to watch other retailers and run conservative inventories and try and take advantage of opportunities, (and) do the best job that we can in this type of environment,” Balmuth continued.

Retailers filing for bankruptcy protection this year include apparel retailers Steve & Barry’s LLC and Goody’s Family Clothing Inc; department store chain Boscov’s Inc, home goods retailers Linens and Things Inc and Sharper Image Inc; and jewelers Friedman’s Inc and Whitehall Jewelers Holdings Inc.

Ross reported a 40 percent profit jump today as cash-strapped customers shifted to the off-price retailer from pricier department stores. Like other off-price retailers such as TJX Cos Inc, Ross buys excess apparel, accessories and home goods in bulk from manufacturers at below-wholesale prices. It has succeeded in luring consumers pressured by higher gas and food prices and the troubled housing market.

(Ross logo/Ross Stores)

Even before a deal to bankroll Steven Spielberg and David Geffen’s new studio has closed, India’s Reliance ADA Group is now on the hunt for U.S. mobile content publishers including game makers, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“The thought is to build a distribution model across the world,” Rajesh Sawhney, president of Reliance Entertainment, a unit of Reliance ADA, told the Journal. “For the content we’re acquiring now, we want to exploit it globally.”

Reliance hired Silicon Valley consultants VSC Consulting to scout out targets. The Mumbai-based conglomerate is also seeking to license content from big producers. This all comes on the heels of signing deals with eight Hollywood production house run by the A-listers George Clooney, Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt.

The latest suggests Reliance has cast its gaze beyond Hollywood.

Keep an eye on:

• Beijing Olympics attract record viewers. (Reuters)
• China TV companies are expected to pay at least 10-times more for the rights to broadcast the Olympics. (FT)
• Hulu reaches 105 million video streams in July. (paidContent) Hulu selects Crispin Porter + Bogusky. (AdWeek)

(Photo: Reuters / Reliance ADA Chairman Anil Ambani)

Late to the game, or the stamp of authority? Goldman Sachs cut its earnings outlooks for Citigroup, JPMorgan, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley last night, citing mounting write-downs on mortgages, a slowdown in overall activity, and legal expenses, and this morning, Bernstein cut its outlook on Lehman, Goldman, and Morgan Stanley. The round third-quarter smack down started with stalwart bank analyst Dick Bove of Ladenburg Thalmann, who cut Goldman and Morgan Stanley on August 11. Top-ranked Deutsche bank analyst Mike Mayo downgraded Goldman on the 12^th, as did Meredith Whitney of Oppenheimer. Goldman’s William Tanona said Lehman could lose $9.65 per share for the year, versus a prior forecast for a loss of $2.10 per share. “We assume no or negative earnings for the majority of firms in our universe this quarter, and for some of our firms, the third quarter marks the fourth consecutive quarter of reported losses, clearly an unprecedented streak.”

Ericsson and STMicroelectronics have agreed to join their wireless chip and software businesses to create a joint venture that will supply four of the world’s top five cellphone makers. The new company will bring together the Mobile Platforms unit of Ericsson, the world’s biggest mobile telecoms equipment maker, and ST-NXP wireless, the third-largest maker of wireless chips globally. With pro-forma 2007 revenues of $3.6 billion, the venture will present a tougher challenge to wireless chip market leader Qualcomm and number two Texas Instruments. Ericsson and ST-NXP Wireless already cooperate with one another. “This is an interesting merger in that the new company will be a supplier to all the big mobile companies except Motorola,” Redeye analyst Greger Johansson said.

Changi Airports International, owned by Singapore’s government, may consider buying British airports that Spain’s Ferrovial may be forced to sell. “We are open to evaluating the deal, but we will wait to see the terms if they are attractive,” said a Changi Airports spokeswoman. Airports operator BAA, owned by Ferrovial, was told by Britain’s Competition Commission that it should sell three of its seven British airports, due to problems created by its near monopoly. Changi has been on a global expansion spree in the past two years, buying a stake in China’s Nanjing Lukou and clinching management contracts in India, Russia and the Middle East.

Other deals of the day:

* ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steel producer, said it had agreed to buy iron ore miner London Mining Brasil for up to $810 million to help improve its self-sufficiency in raw materials.

* Business software maker Salesforce.com said that it bought smaller software maker InStranet for $31.5 million.

* Israeli holding company Koor Industries said it had raised its stake in Credit Suisse after gradually reducing it in recent weeks.

* Kirloskar Electric said its board has approved picking up stakes in two German firms. It will buy about 95 percent in German manufacturing firm Lloyd Dynamowerke and 100 percent in Lloyd Beteiligungs from CMP Fonds.

As the dog days of August drag on, the M&A market seems content to spend the rest of the summer quietly at the beach. But, unlike last year, the deals that are being forged have been more likely to close.

The volume of deals that have been withdrawn has dropped 40 percent this year, according to research firm Dealogic. Withdrawn M&A totaled $428.6 billion so far this year, down from $716.2 billion in the same period last year.

The U.S. has the worst track record, leading all nations for the highest volume of withdrawn deals, Dealogic said. Withdrawn deals totaled $119.0 billion in the U.S., followed by Spain with $60.8 billion and Sweden with $47.9 billion.

Electronic Arts Inc’s move to abandon its $1.9 billion hostile bid for Take-Two Interactive Software ranked as the 8th largest withdrawn bid in the U.S. this year, Dealogic said. Still, that deal could be salvaged as the two companies hold private negotiations.

The biggest deal failures in the U.S. this year? Microsoft Corp’s $47.5 billion offer for Yahoo Inc ranked as the largest withdrawn bid, followed by a consortium’s $12.8 billion yanked proposal for the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and the $8.5 billion collapse of Penn National Gaming’s takeover, Dealogic said.

Of course, there are fewer deals overall — so the decline in collapsed deals isn’t much to cheer about. In the first half of the year, deal volume dropped 29 percent in the U.S. and 40 percent globally, according to Thomson Reuters data.