The beauty behemoth already owns (and helped start) Tom Ford Beauty.
Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
The Eestée Lauder Companies Inc. is readying to announce its acquisition of the Tom Ford brand in a deal valued at $2.8 billion, Business of Fashion reports. An official statement is expected to come as soon as Tuesday.
This would be Estée Lauder’s biggest acquisition to date, and, notably, its first fashion brand. The company already owns Tom Ford Beauty, which it helped launch back in 2005, when the designer went off on his own and started his namesake company with Domenico De Sole. Ford expanded into ready-to-wear in 2010. With this latest acquisition, it will gain control of the brand’s apparel business as well, a first for the cosmetics company.
In early July, Bloomberg reported that Tom Ford, the brand, had brought on Goldman Sachs to advise on a potential sale that could value it at “several billion dollars,” and that would potentially “include an option that would give any new owner of Tom Ford the right to work with its founder after the sale.”
In August, The Estée Lauder Companies emerged as a potential buyer, the Wall Street Journal reported, with Dana Cimilluca, Cara Lombardo and Ben Dummett writing: “Estée Lauder is especially interested in the beauty business, with which it already has a longstanding licensing deal, and could potentially look to license the clothing lines elsewhere, the people familiar with the matter said.”
By November, Kering — i.e. Ford’s former employer — entered the race, per the Journal. But over the weekend, the Financial Times reported that Estée Lauder had beat out other interested parties and was preparing to share news of the deal, which includes Tom Ford’s debt.
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Source: Fashionista.com
