Federated Gets New Name, New “M” Ticker Symbol

New York, NY, March 29, 2007--Federated Department Stores shares will trade under the ticker symbol "M" if shareholders approve changing the company's name to Macy's Inc., the company said Wednesday.

In changing its symbol to "M" from "FD" -- which the retailer has traded under since 1992 -- Federated will join an elite group of 15 companies represented by a single letter on the New York Stock Exchange.

The change is before shareholders at Federated's May 18 annual meeting, and the stock symbol change would be effective June 1. The company opted to shorten its proposed new name from the previously announced Macy's Group Inc.

The moves are part of Federated's strategy to focus on building Macy's as a national brand.

"Macy's represents about 90 percent of the revenue of our corporation, and this is another important opportunity to reinforce the recent expansion of the Macy's brand," Terry J. Lundgren, chairman, president and chief executive, said in a statement.

Federated, with corporate offices in Cincinnati and New York, operates more than 850 department stores in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico under the Macy's and Bloomingdale's nameplates.

A company's stock symbol inevitably becomes part of its identity, so a mnemonic that's short and easy to remember is highly coveted. The NYSE lists specific guidelines that companies must meet to list on the exchange, but no official criteria about requesting or switching ticker symbols.

Nasdaq Stock Market knows the cachet of a snappy symbol: earlier this month, the electronic exchange known for its four-letter ticker symbols said it will start allowing companies to have symbols with one, two or three letters -- which could ease the transition if a company that's already established on the NYSE wants to list on the Nasdaq.

Some companies get creative with their multi-letter symbols -- take brewers Anheuser Busch Cos. and Molson Coors Brewing Co., who use "BUD" and "TAP," or Southwest Airlines, whose symbol "LUV" is an homage to the carrier's Dallas hub, Love Field. But the single letter has a special appeal; when Sprint and Nextel combined in 2005, the new Sprint Nextel Corp. abandoned the old symbols "FON" and "NXTL" and applied for the simpler "S."

Here are the other Madonnas and Chers of the NYSE:

A: Agilent Technologies Inc., scientific instrument maker

B: Barnes Group Inc., metals manufacturer and industrial supplies distributor

C: Citigroup Inc., the nation's largest bank

D: Dominion Resources Inc., electricity and gas distributor

E: Eni SpA, Rome-based energy company

F: Ford Motor Co., automaker

H: Realogy Corp., residential real estate brokerage company

K: Kellogg Co., the nation's No. 1 cereal maker

M: Macy's Inc. (effective June 1 upon shareholder approval)

O: Realty Income Corp., real estate investment trust

Q: Qwest Communications International Inc., phone company

R: Ryder System Inc., commercial vehicle distributor

S: Sprint Nextel Corp., wireless carrier

T: AT&T Inc., phone and Internet company

X: United States Steel Corp., steel maker

Y: Alleghany Corp., conglomerate with insurance and real estate businesses