Think of a sunglasses you admired on a friend yesterday, or one you got yourself from a local city mall barely two months ago, and it might just be a Ray-Ban.
But behind that name is one of Europe’s’ big business success stories, Luxottica. An Italian eyewear company based in Milan,  Luxottica is currently the world's biggest glasses maker.
Now as characteristic of its culture of mergers and acquisitions: a culture dated back to its very first of such market penetration or leadership strategy when in 1974, its founding partner, Del Vecchio acquired Scarrone, a distribution company the Italian eyewear giant, owners of Ray-Ban and Oakley which it equally acquired in 1997 and 2007 respectively, is set for a merger deal with the French lens maker Essillor.
When the merger is effected, the firms would be on a combined net-worth of about 46bn euros (£40bn; $49bn). Moreover, the arrangement is expected to facilitate a smooth leadership transition for the company’s 81-year-old founder, Leonardo Del Vecchio.
Mr. Vecchio who rose from the sands of orphanage and a mere metalwork apprentice to become the wealthiest man in Italy, had in 1961 founded Luxottica.
Aside its eyewear designing business, Luxottica equally has licensing agreements to create eyewear for leading fashion brands such as Versace, Burberry, and the blockbuster, Dolce & Gabanna.
In the last two years, the company has been at the mercy of instability at its apex leadership with three chief executives over a two-year period. It currently further faces a plummeting share price with a 14% drop over the last 12 months, a development speculated to be due to Mr. Del Vecchio's succession plans.
The eyewear giant also disclosed its earlier effort to enter into a deal with the world's chief maker of prescription lenses, Esillor but said it had failed on the basis of mutually unacceptable conditions.
Speaking of this milestone in the company’s history, Luxottica’s executive chairman, Leonardo Del Vecchio. Said "The marriage between two key companies in their sectors will bring great benefits to the market, for employees and mainly for all our consumers". I mean, who could have said it better than the man who has lived through it all at this Italian global giant?
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