Private equity-backed brand-management groups, such as Bluestar Alliance, Marquee Brands, Authentic Brands Group, WHP Global, and others, have been increasing their footprint in the licensing business for decades, acquiring intellectual properties and adding value through a 100% licensing model. They overwhelmingly focus on fashion brands, but over the years have diversified to include some retail […]
Archive | Business models
Change in the Innerwear Industry
The innerwear category has seen a lot of structural change in the past year, through mergers, acquisitions, and new or restructured licensing models: Wacoal International, a global innerwear company based in Japan, acquired Glamorise, a direct-to-consumer plus-size lingerie specialist, in a deal announced last week. Wacoal, which in the U.S. sells primarily to the department […]
Keeping Tabs on Streamer Strategies
This summer has brought an abundance of news on the streaming front, with implications for owners of entertainment, sports, celebrity, and other property types looking for ways to get their IPs in front of TV viewers: Revenue growth. Several leading entertainment companies called out the revenue increases for their streaming businesses in their recent financial […]
Designers Look to the Future
In the past month, three long-established, designer-led fashion and lifestyle labels whose founders are still active have come under new ownership. These types of deals can help solidify the designers’ future legacy and allow for additional near-term expansion, while allowing the founders to continue doing what they love and maintain a say in how the […]
Fashion Acquisitions Highlight Brand-Management Model
A raft of fashion brands were acquired by one of the major licensing-forward brand management companies in 2024, and the trend already seems to be continuing into 2025. The sheer number of such purchases is an indicator of the power of this long-important business model to rescue and right the operations of struggling fashion brands […]
Happy Returns For Former Retail Brands
Several formerly defunct retailers have announced relaunches, or expanded on recent relaunches, this year. Through a variety of strategies, their well-known IPs are coming back, both online and as shop-in-shops and/or standalone retail locations: Bed Bath & Beyond returned to bricks-and-mortar retail through partnerships with The Container Store and Kirkland’s, both announced in October. The […]
Hoping for Happily Ever After
Earlier this year, two licensors reworked their deals with important licensees, granting them perpetual licenses within their categories. This is a relatively uncommon deal structure where a significant upfront payment, typically in lieu of an ongoing royalty, gives the licensee ownership of their category indefinitely, with the IP owner retaining rights to the underlying brand. […]
A Potential Path to Prosperity
The luxury space has experienced a steady drumbeat of M&A activity this year. The sector has been troubled since the second half of 2023, when many players started to report declining sales and stock prices. While things have turned around a bit for some players in the first half of this year, growth overall has […]
Toy Trend Takeaways from Q2
By Karen Raugust on August 12, 2024 in Business models, Character/Entertainment, Licensing, Toys/Games
Second quarter financial results, released in July and August, of five of the major publicly traded toy and collectibles companies—Mattel, Hasbro, Spin Master, Jakks Pacific, and Funko—all showed declines (of varying degrees) in topline revenues and net sales during the period, compared to the same timeframe in 2023. The lone exception was Funko, which saw […]
Solidifying the Future Through Licensing
Transitioning to an all-licensing model has become a go-to option for fashion (and other) labels facing financial hardship. Most often this move comes after the challenged brand is purchased by one of the leading management groups, whose business model is to buy up struggling IPs and turn them around through a licensing-only approach. But it […]