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The decision to sell the privately held company is it write? The decision to sell the privately held company, expected to be announced today, is a surprise move by the company’s eccentric founder, Dov Charney, who is known for exercising strict, and at times controversial, control over the retailer’s operations. Mr. Charney, who grew up in Montreal, has personally photographed many of the semi-naked women featured in American Apparel advertising and is known for hiring employees, most of them women, on the spot during telephone calls or at parties. American Apparel’s buyer, the Endeavor Acquisition Corporation, is a small, publicly traded investment group created last year, with less than $125 million in assets. American Apparel is the firm’s first acquisition — and Endeavor is expected to expand the chain across the globe. Endeavor Acquisition was founded as a “blank check” firm, intended to buy companies, by Jonathan J. Ledecky, who started U.S. Office Products in 1994, expanding it through 260 acquisitions. U.S. Office Products filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001, a few of years after Mr. Ledecky left. Mr. Charney, 37, will remain chief executive of American Apparel after the sale, according to people with direct knowledge of the deal, who discussed the transaction on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. American Apparel, founded in 1997 in Los Angeles, quickly became a retail sensation, with 145 stores and Gap-like ubiquity with eight stores in Los Angeles and 15 in New York City. But its sales have slowed significantly in the last year. At stores open at least a year, a crucial measure in retailing, revenue rose 7 percent in 2006, compared with 74 percent in 2004 and 45 percent in 2005, according to documents prepared by Endeavor