After months of speculation regarding the future of luxury British e-commerce site Net-a-Porter, it has finally been revealed that a merger is in the pipeline with another luxury online company, Yoox.
The news follows rumours that Net-a-Porter was due to be bought out by companies such as Amazon, but it looks like the popular site will remain much as it was before, albeit with some slight shake-ups behind the scenes. Founder Natalie Massenet will stay on at the company, taking the role of Executive Chairman. Yoox boss Federico Marchetti will move into the Chief Executive role should the deal go through from September onwards. “We expect the combined group to be a fantastic platform for luxury brands and we can think about luxury brands as strategic investors,” said Marchetti of the move between the two companies.
Although the merger has yet to be approved, the new company is set to make its debut as Yoox Net-a-Porter Group once the deal goes through this autumn. It will be headquartered in Italy and incorporated into the Italian stock exchange. Previous owners of Net-a-Porter, luxury Swiss group Richemont, will retain 50% of the shares in the new company but will see its voting rights reduced to 25%. The merger will create a business with combined net revenues (as of 2014) of $1.4bn and will see Yoox amalgamate their discounted, out-of-season designer goods with Net-a-Porter’s current and latest offerings.
