Nordstrom suspends effort to go private until after the holidays

New York

THE family behind the 116-year-old Nordstrom retail chain is shelving its efforts to go private until after the holiday season, the company said on Monday.

The high-end Seattle-based brand, which has 360 stores across North America, is facing the same economic pressures and competition from e-commerce as other brick-and-mortar retailers.

Although family members have been tight-lipped about their reasons for wanting to take the company private, such a move would allow Nordstrom more freedom to experiment with solutions while avoiding the scrutiny of public ownership and the pressure of quarterly earnings reports.

But in a regulatory filing on Monday, the company cited "the difficulty of obtaining debt financing in the…