Andrea Felsted, Columnist

Ray-Ban Billionaire Displays Dealmaker’s Instinct

Eyewear maker EssilorLuxottica has far less to lose if a deal for GrandVision falls through.

December 10, 2020 at 1:02 PM UTC

Andrea Felsted is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering consumer goods and the retail industry. Previously, she was a reporter for the Financial Times.

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The maker of Ray-Ban sunglasses, EssilorLuxottica SA, is reconsidering its agreed upon 7.3 billion-euro ($8.8 billion) purchase of optical retailer GrandVision NV, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday. Shares in GrandVision fell as much as 5% early Thursday, before recovering slightly. Those of EssilorLuxottica hardly moved.

This shows who has the most to lose if a transaction falls apart, and it’s not Luxottica’s billionaire founder Leonardo Del Vecchio.