Signet buys JamesAllen

[bcavitt]

Thoughts?

http://instoremag.com/shine-times/23988-signet-to-acquire-james-allen-in-328m-deal

 

[BlingDreams]

If this is true, it would concern me. Signet owns Jared's, Kay, and Zales. It would be a shame to see JA turned in to a lower class operation, which seems to be Signet's m.o. I'd be on the lookout for increased prices and decreased upgrade policies.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

James Allen was already owned by someone else. So I really doubt it will make any difference. I assume they are buying it because it is profitable the way it is. My guess is that Signet wants an online diamond selling platform which is fairly smart.

 

[HDer]

I definitely think Signet is not buying James Allen to turn it into another Zales.

Their hope, most likely, is to scale the James Allen platform and the Segoma diamond viewing technology which I think is patented to their other brands. This is undoubtedly a good thing if it means general consumers will start buying and appreciating higher quality diamonds.

The key question as in most corporate mergers is whether the existing corporate culture will accept the new team. The in mall retail business is undoubtedly shrinking and the online business is growing but it's hard to convince people whose business has been selling crappy diamonds at huge markups to change to a higher quality diamonds at smaller markups model.

 

[AprilBaby]

This is sad to hear.

 

[denverappraiser]

Jim had partners, but I don't think it's entirely fair to call that 'owned by someone else'. Now it is. This is $320 million in cash for 100% of the company. He may buy some stock in Signet with his new bag of money, or not, he may just go to the beach, but this is a changing of the guard. Amusingly, Signet's stock went up 17% the day of this announcement. Somebody out there thinks it was a good buy.

Congratulations Jim.

 

[baby monster]

The article makes it sound as if Signet is primarily purchasing the technology platform with one of the founders coming on board as a technology officer. JA's website is definitely one of the best in terms of features and user-friendliness. I can see why signet would want to roll out similar features to their other brands.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Jim had partners, but I don't think it's entirely fair to call that 'owned by someone else'. Now it is. This is $320 million in cash for 100% of the company. He may buy some stock in Signet with his new bag of money, or not, he may just go to the beach, but this is a changing of the guard. Amusingly, Signet's stock went up 17% the day of this announcement. Somebody out there thinks it was a good buy.

Congratulations Jim.

Signet Jewelers Ltd. (NYSE: SIG) announced that it will buy R2Net, owner of online jewelry retailer JamesAllen.com, for $328 million. I didn't know Jim was an owner of R2Net. Are you certain about that, Neil? I can't tell from the site. But if so, big congrats to Jim!

 

[stonewell]

I certainly hope it's merely a tech platform acquisition strategy than anything else and Signet leaves JA intact to operate as it currently does today. Statistics show more M&As are doomed to fail due to corporate mission and cultural differences - and I see the two being worlds apart in the value proposition they provide to consumers.

 

[denverappraiser]

It's a private company and details about who owns what are proprietary, but here's what JA has to say about the topic.

https://www.jamesallen.com/about-us/

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Signet is a big company. They bought JamesAllen because they see that as being profitable in the future. They may see some of their other operations on the decline as many move to online purchases. I seriously don't think they are going to mess with something highly successful. They are smart and wanted to diversify. JamesAllen is an incredible site. Their prices are not as good as they once were, but nowhere can you see videos of diamonds in the quantity they provide. You still have to know about cut to choose a good one, though, since they don't really help you out on that, other than their True Hearts. Maybe that part is coming. We shall see!

 

[denverappraiser]

The 360 degree zoomable interactive video thing is amazing. That’s going to be useful for a lot more than diamonds.

 

[LawmaLlama]

Ugh. I hope JA doesn't take on the Signet approach to customer service.

 

[thorstedswife]

Well that just sucks ..