News briefs - Corporate and M&A – Page 33
-
News briefsAre Amazon and Nike interested in Peloton?
We recently reported that an activist investor in Peloton had called on the board to fire the CEO and explore a sale of the company, whose share price had fallen dramatically due to declining demand for its connected fitness solutions. Now Peloton’s share price has risen by just over a ...
-
News briefs
Helmet company Kask takes over footwear company Vogel
Kask, an Italian company founded in 2004 specialized in sports and work helmets, announced the acquisition of Vogel, a Manhattan-based maker of riding boots and other footwear since 1879. The purchase is part of Kask’s strategy of increasing its presence in the fashion business while remaining an established company in ...
-
News briefsMistral acquired by Dutch investor
The surf brand Mistral has been acquired by the Dutch investment company Nederlands MerkGoed (NMG) from Haarlem. Nothing was disclosed about the takeover price. Mistral was the first European windsurfing brand, founded in 1976. Mistral’s portfolio currently includes windsurfing equipment, SUPs and apparel. The company generated sales of €80 million ...
-
News briefsWithings acquires health and fitness app 8fit
Withings, a French electronics company with offices in the U.S. and Hong Kong and focusing on at-home connected health, announced the acquisition of 8fit, a global health, fitness and wellness app with more than 40 million downloads, launched in Berlin in 2014. Available in six languages, 8fit provides its users ...
-
News briefs
Performance shares for Accell’s new supply chain leader
Accell Group, which was recently notified about an intended, indirect takeover offer from Pon Holdings, has announced that Francesca Gamboni, who started on Feb. 1 as chief supply chain officer of the company, has been granted 10,000 conditional performance shares in the group, subjected to her continued employment three years ...
-
News briefs
Brooks’ CEO has written a book
Jim Weber, who became president and CEO of Brooks Running in 2001, has written a book on his life journey and his career while running the formerly bankrupt company, which was acquired by Russell Athletic in 2004 and by Fruit of the Loom, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, in 2006. It ...
-
News briefs
Adidas to hire 2,800 or more in 2022
Adidas is planning to hire about 2,800 people – to fill both vacancies and new posts – at 307 locations in 47 countries in 2022, with more posts to be advertised as the year goes along. More than 800 of them will be posted in Germany and more than 900 ...
-
News briefs
Reebok may lay off 150 people
Reebok is planning to lay off 150 people after the completion of its sale by Adidas to the Authentic Brands Group (ABG) in the course of the first quarter of this year, according to the Boston Globe and Footwear News. The brand employs some 4,000 people around the world, but ...
-
News briefsIsbjörn of Sweden may change ownership
Online Brands Nordic, a Swedish investment group, is bidding to acquire Nordic KidsWear, which owns Isbjörn of Sweden, the Swedish brand of sustainable children’s outdoor and ski clothing. It is offering a cash payment of about 17.9 million Swedish kronor (€1.71m-$1.92m), the issuance of 597,165 shares in Online Brands, ...
-
News briefs
Gorilla Sports gains foothold in Spain
Gorilla Sports has found a local investor to help it set up a shop in Spain. The German home fitness equipment company is establishing a subsidiary, to be led by Guillem Boix, in Fontcoberta, a city in the Catalonian province of Girona. Offices and warehouse together will occupy about 1,000 ...
-
News briefs
Investor calls for Peloton to be sold and its boss to be fired
An activist investor in Peloton Interactive is calling on its board of directors to dismiss its CEO and co-founder, John Foley, and to explore a sale of the company, whose share price has declined drastically due to falling demand for its products and connected fitness solutions. Blackwells Capital, which holds ...
-
News briefs
Nike, Columbia to begin firing unvaxxed employees
According to Oregonlive, which covers the sportswear giant’s home state of Oregon, Nike was set on Jan. 15 to begin firing employees who were not, by the current definition, vaccinated against Covid-19 and had not received a religious or medical exemption. According to the same source, Columbia Sportswear, also headquartered ...
-
News briefsPolygiene acquires another British antimicrobial additive business
Polygiene has entered into an agreement to acquire the SteriTouch business of Radical Materials, a U.K.-based company, founded in 2003, that is also operating with the product ranges Konduct, Scopic and Steritype. Its SteriTouch range consists primarily of antimicrobial additives for plastics, paints, coatings, silicone, rubber and textiles. The largest ...
-
News briefs
Puma starts its own voyage into the metaverse
Joining Nike, Adidas and Under Armour, which recently filed similar trademark applications, the Wild Cat filed its own applications with the U.S. Trademark Office on Jan. 11 to use the Puma mark in virtual content, indicating that it is planning its own journey into the fast-growing metaverse. Specifically, it wants ...
-
News briefs
Moody’s switches Nike’s outlook to stable from negative
Moody’s improved its outlook for Nike’s debt from “negative” to “stable,” due to its recent strong growth in revenues and earnings, “powered by its successful execution of its Consumer Direct Acceleration strategy.” The rating agency confirmed all other ratings for the company, including an A1 senior unsecured debt rating, pointing ...
-
News briefs
Nasdaq downgrades Peloton
The Nasdaq stock exchange said it will take Peloton Interactive out of its prime Nasdaq 100 Index on Jan. 24, when it will be replaced by a trucking company. The change follows a drop of 74 percent in the company’s stock market capitalization in the course of 2021. It closed ...
-
News briefs
Adidas to establish a basketball hub in Los Angeles
Adidas has leased the equivalent of 9,940 square meters of office space in downtown Los Angeles, according to The Wall Street Journal, apparently to establish a hub for its basketball operations in the U.S., which are currently still based at the company’s North American head office in Portland, Oregon. The ...
-
News briefs
S&P assigns a negative outlook to Crocs
Having completed its review of Crocs following its expensive takeover of Hey Dude, Standard & Poor’s gave a negative outlook to the company, in contrast with the stable outlook assigned by Moody’s. S&P indicated that it might even downgrade Crocs further if it fails to integrate the casual footwear brand ...
-
News briefs
Adidas starts new share buyback program
Adidas announced the start of the first tranche of its new multi-year share buyback program, announced in December 2021. As part of the program, the company intends to repurchase up to €1 billion worth of its own shares during the first quarter of 2022 alone. The company, which already completed ...
-
News briefs
ABG cancels its IPO registration
The Authentic Brands Group has officially withdrawn the application that it had made with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission on July 6, 2021 for an initial public offering. ABG, which is still in line to take over Reebok before the end of the current quarter, had indicated in November ...
