
After months of speculation, the beauty conglomerate announced Tuesday that it has agreed to buy the Tom Ford brand. Estée Lauder will pay approximately $2.3 billion, with the brand’s eyewear partner, Marcolin, paying Estée $250 million at the closing.
Tom Ford — designer, film director, art collector and fashion world provocateur — can now add one more accolade to his list: billionaire. On Tuesday, Estée Lauder announced it had agreed to buy his company in a deal that totaled $2.8 billion.
The deal is the largest in the luxury industry this year, and is a testament to the enduring power of perfume. It comes as high-end brands are looking for new avenues for growth as business in China — once the engine for luxury beauty businesses — has become more difficult amid pandemic restriction
Estée Lauder’s agreement to acquire fashion firm Tom Ford appears to have made its founder a new billionaire. The cosmetics giant announced on Tuesday it was purchasing the fashion brand for $2.3 billion in cash and debt, plus $300 million in deferred payments that would be paid out beginning in July 2025. The deal values the company at $2.8 billion, including the $250 million Estée Lauder will receive from Marcolin, the Italian eyewear brand that holds the license for Tom Ford’s line of glasses.
Forbes estimates that Ford, 61, will get about $1.1 billion in cash from the sale, after deducting estimated taxes. (The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2023.) Ford owned nearly 64% of the company according to a 2013 filing, and he does not appear to have sold any of his stake since then.
He also owns at least two homes, including one in Holmby Hills in Los Angeles and another on New York’s Upper East Side, that are worth a collective $65 million. Altogether, Ford is now worth an estimated $1.2 billion. Estée Lauder and Tom Ford did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ford isn’t the only one who cashed out in the sale. Italian luxury retailer Zegna held a 15% stake in the company, worth an estimated $345 million (pre-tax). Ford’s longtime business partner Domenico De Sole held just over 11% of the firm, now valued at $259 million (pre-tax). Grupo Americo Amorim, a Portuguese conglomerate founded by the late billionaire “King of Cork” Americo Amorim (d. 2017.), owned the remaining 10%, now worth $230 million before taxes.
Tom Ford reported a $96 million profit on $1.7 billion in sales in 2021, according to the latest annual report filed by publicly traded Zegna, which will retain a long-term license for the brand’s clothing and accessories. Last year marked a turnaround from 2020 and 2019, when the brand posted net losses. Tom Ford has 98 stores in several countries including China, Italy, Japan, Russia, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.
Ford will stay on as a “creative visionary” through the end of 2023, according to the statement announcing the deal. “I could not be happier with this acquisition as The Estée Lauder Companies is the ideal home for the brand,” Ford said in the announcement. “They have been an extraordinary partner from the first day of my creation of the company and I am thrilled to see them become the luxury stewards in this next chapter of the Tom Ford brand.”