With LVMH-Tiffany Marriage Solid, Will "Diamonds and Gold" Really Be "Our Favorite Things"
/
Tiffany & Co releases its Holiday 2020 campaign days after reaching a final agreement with LVMH and chairman Bernard Arnault to join the luxury market kingpin’s family. Patti Wilson styles a model quintet including Binx Walton, Cameron Russell, Freja Beha Erichsen, Julia Nobis, and Mayowa Nicholas.
Craig McDean is behind the lens making festive images in support of Tiffany’s pronouncement: “Diamonds and gold, bracelets and rings, these are our favorite things.”
As both companies wrangled over terms of their merger in federal court, New York-based Tiffany agreed to accept a lower purchase price from the French conglomerate, ending fears that the escalating financial feud could derail the deal in the middle of a global pandemic.
In the end, Tiffany & Co lowered its purchase price from $135 to $131.50 a share, a discount worth $400 million to LVMH. Arnault was said to be personally fuming that Tiffany continued to pay out dividends at a pre-pandemic rate, expecting LVMH to take the loss in what is now a $15.8 million deal — the largest ever in the luxury sector.
The New York Times took a deep dive into the richest man in Europe, calling Bernard Arnaut, the chairman of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the Sun Tzu of Luxury. Re Wiki: “Sun Tzu was a Chinese general, military strategist, writer and philosopher who lived in the Eastern Zhou period of ancient China. Sun Tzu is traditionally credited as the author of The Art of War, an influential work of military strategy that has affected both Western and East Asian philosophy and military thinking.”
