Merger of Essilor and Luxottica
In January 2017, Essilor and Luxottica announced the merger of their activities. After having received the necessary authorizations from the competition authorities of the United States, the European Union, Brazil, Canada and China, EssilorLuxottica was created on 1 October 2018.[4] On a technical level, Essilor acquired Luxottica, though Luxottica founder and executive chairman Leonardo Del Vecchio became co-leader of the new conglomerate, which would change its name to contain both companies. Luxottica proceeded to delist its American depositary receipts from the New York Stock Exchange upon announcement of the merger.[5][6][7][8][9]
Del Vecchio's holding company, Delfin, then held 62.42% of Luxottica, a share that it contributed to EssilorLuxotica. Delfin also became a plurality shareholder of the new group with 38.9% of the capital.[10]
This merger gives birth to a giant of the optical industry, generating a turnover of more than €16 billion and a market capitalization of €57 billion.[11] The merger did not occur without controversy from anti-trust researchers, however, and Turkish authorities, accusing the company of not fulfilling anti-trust obligations it had agreed to during the merger, fined EssilorLuxottica €17 million in late August 2023.[12][13]
Internal war for leadership
Despite the merger being completed in 2018, the company still faced an internal leadership battle for control of the company, fought between old Essilor leadership and Del Vecchio, who went on to state in a March 2019 interview with Le Figaro that Essilor CEO Hubert Sagnières "only listened to himself", and had cost the company up to €600 million in savings from the merger. Sagnières responded to Del Vecchio by accusing the Luxottica founder of attempting to take control of the newly formed conglomerate without offering "a premium to shareholders" of EssilorLuxottica. Del Vecchio further accused Sagnières of inexperience when running an eyewear company. The terms of the merger provided that old Essilor leadership as well as Luxottica's officers would have equal control over the merged entity, though the company would select a new CEO, internally or externally, by the end of 2020.[14][15][16]
Ultimately, Del Vecchio won with the backing of EssilorLuxottica shareholders. Del Vecchio chose to appoint Francesco Milleri as CEO and Paul du Saillant as deputy CEO. Saginères ultimately departed EssilorLuxottica after the feud, and Del Vecchio, who previously agreed to limit his voting rights to control the company, regained the full weight of such voting rights. A company statement to the Financial Times reflected the settled nature of the conflict, stating that the resolution of the leadership battle represented "the victory of a vision, the creation of an extraordinary business that is at the beginning of what it can achieve".
Later acquisitions
At the beginning of 2019, EssilorLuxottica acquired German-based Brille24 GmbH.[17] Essilor's partner Shamir acquired Union Optic, a prescription laboratory that also distributes optical instruments. Essilor also acquired a majority stake in Indulentes, one of Ecuador's leading prescription laboratories, and a majority stake in Metalizado Optico Argentino S.A. (MOA), one of Argentina's leading prescription laboratories.[18]
EssilorLuxottica acquired a 75% stake in the Dutch opticians group GrandVision, which owns Vision Express in the UK and For Eyes in the US, in 2019 for €28 per share, which would value the entirety of GrandVision at Euro 7.2 billion.[19]
Del Vecchio died in June 2022, leaving $350 million in shares to Milleri.[20][21]
2021 data breach
May 2023 saw EssilorLuxottica confirm that it had suffered a data breach two years earlier in 2021; upon noticing the breach, the company immediately alerted the FBI and Italian law enforcement. A spokesperson for the company stated that the company was first aware of the data breach in November 2022, and the owner of the website Have I Been Pwned? stated that around 77 million accounts were released.[30]
