The Luxottica Overtake

While the merger is still taking place, it appears that the Luxottica Group will most likely be the new owners of Oakley. It was announced on June 21, 2007 that Luxottica had bought Oakley for $2.1 billion, meaning Jim Jannard, founder and majority stock owner stands to make 1.65 billion out of the deal. The reason that they are not the official owners yet is due to an ocean of legal hoops to jump through, mostly monopoly/anti-trust laws. Fortunately for Luxottica, they have been recently granted early termination of the U.S. anti-trust waiting period. More information can be found in the Luxottica press release here. As for the funding needed to be raised in order to purchase Oakley, it has all been accounted for through two groups of international banks. More about that can be found in another press release here.

It looks as though this is all going to happen and Luxottica will be able to add Oakley and their recent acquisition of Oliver People's to their brand offerings. There are many people that feel as though Luxottica will now be a complete company with the addition of Oakley to their roster. Luxottica had been lacking in the sports eye-wear segment of the market and have now just filled that void with the leader in it.

Personally, I feel as though Oakley has sold out. They have always made it a point to differentiate themselves from their competitors at all costs. As a matter of fact, Luxottica was their biggest competitor and rival up until they were bought out. I guess I can understand Jim Jannard selling the company considering that he is 57 years old and recently started a new video camera company called Red.

Hopefully Oakley can still stay the way that they are but now with a much bigger bank roll that will allow them to reseach and design newer and better technologies and eyewear. Hopefully nothing terrible happens. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.