The story of e-commerce’s rise and retail’s fall is long and nuanced, but rarely told as literally as it was on Wall Street Monday.
Just as the influencer- and data-savvy Revolve Group followed up on its blockbuster IPO on Friday, Richard Baker was looking to take Hudson’s Bay Co. off the market.
Revolve’s stock shot up 89 percent in its first day of trading and perked up as much as another 32 percent on Monday to peak at $44.76 before giving that back and closing for the day down 2.1 percent at $33.30. The techie newcomer ended with a market capitalization of $2.3 billion.
On the other hand, Baker, one of retail’s foremost empire builders, served up a deal to try to take Saks Fifth Avenue-parent HBC private again — after a six-and-a-half-year journey as a public company and at a stock valuation of about 1.7 billion Canadian dollars, or $1.3 billion.
Take it as a sign the digital revolution is growing up and that investors are liking it.
Mike Karanikolas, co-chief executive officer of Revolve, told WWD last week: “The market is reacting to us having a unique combination of having built an incredible fashion brand, but then operating with technology and data to
Revolve Settles in as HBC Exit Looms
Image Courtesy of Chelsea Lauren/WWD
