- Luxury conglomerate LVMH just agreed to acquire jewelry retailer Tiffany & Co. for $16.2 billion.
- On Thursday, just a few days before news of the deal broke, Tiffany CEO Alessandro Bogliolo spoke about the future of the company at Bloomberg's annual The Year Ahead: Luxury summit in New York City.
- Bogliolo said that customers care about a company's product and brand and "don't care" who the company's shareholders are.
- At the summit, the CEO of Tiffany declined to speak in detail about the jewelry retailer's then-pending acquisition but said the deal was unlikely to impact consumer interests.
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Tiffany & Co. CEO Alessandro Bogliolo spoke about the future of the iconic jewelry retailer at Bloomberg's annual The Year Ahead: Luxury summit in New York City on Thursday, just days before LVMH, the largest luxury goods company in the world, agreed to buy Tiffany for a record-breaking $16.2 billion.
At the summit, Bogliolo declined to speak in detail about the then-pending acquisition, but he did offer a few insights into how he thinks the deal might impact consumer interests - which is to say, virtually not at all.
"Customers, they don't care about your shareholders," the Tiffany CEO said, according to Bloomberg. "Customers care about your product - about your brand, about sustainability, about the beauty of your products. This is what really makes success."
Bogliolo also spoke about the changing habits of American consumers - specifically millennials who, he says, "regard brands differently than previous generations did at their age."
"When I was young, it was important to buy a famous brand and a beautiful product," he continued. "Millennials have much more questions. They want to know why Tiffany is famous, what do they stand for, and why should I go to them."
Garrett Leight, CEO and founder of luxury eyewear brand Garrett Leight California Optical (GLCO), shared similar sentiments in an interview with Business Insider, suggesting that one of the reasons behind Barneys New York's shutdown was the luxe department store's failure to establish an "identity" with younger consumers.
"I'm not really sure who the voice was or what the voice was [of Barneys]. I don't really know what they stand for. Even in leaving, they just made an Instagram post, and it just had a hashtag on it," Leight said. "Today, millennials and Gen-Z - we want to connect with something. We want to know who we're supporting, and I just don't know what [Barneys'] identity was."
LVMH agrees to buy Tiffany in a record-breaking deal
In October, news broke that LVMH had offered to buy the jewelry retailer for $14.5 billion; Tiffany declined that initial bid. LVMH then raised their offer, Reuters reported on Wednesday. On Sunday, the Financial Times reported that the deal between the two companies was imminent and expected to close for $16.7 billion. The deal officially closed on Monday, with LVMH agreeing to purchase Tiffany and Co. for $16.2 billion - the luxury giant's most expensive acquisition to date.
It's also set to be the priciest deal in the history of the luxury sector, Amie Tsang and Vanessa Friedman of the New York Times report.
"This transaction, which occurs at a time of internal transformation for our legendary brand, will provide further support, resources and momentum for those priorities as we evolve towards becoming The Next Generation Luxury Jeweler," Bogliolo said in a press statement announcing the deal.
The LVMH deal still needs to be approved by Tiffany's existing shareholders, according to the New York Times, and is set to close in the middle of next year.
This isn't the only restructuring happening behind the scenes at Tiffany. Last week, Page Six also reported that Daniella Vitale, the former CEO of bankrupt Barneys, is set to become the company's executive vice president and chief brand officer.