General merchandise retailer Nordstrom acquired online private-sale merchant HauteLook on Feb. 17. It hopes to better compete with the Rue La Las, Gilts and Ideelis for flash sales.
The deal is worth $180 million in Nordstrom stock. If HauteLook performs well financially, HauteLook could receive another $90 in Nordstrom stock over the next three years.
HauteLook will operate as an independent, wholly owned subsidiary of Nordstrom and will be managed by its current CEO, Adam Bernhard. The HauteLook brand and website will remain separate from Nordstrom.
HauteLook offers discounts of 50% to 75% off on brands for women, men, kids, home, beauty, travel and local services. It has more than 4 million registered members.
Though it is an all-stock deal, Nordstrom may have money to burn. Norsdtrom announced yesterday that its net earnings for the fiscal year, which ended January 29, were up $172 million (39%) to $613 million compared to the prior year.
Nordstrom’s net sales for the fiscal year were $9.31 billion, up 12.7% over the prior fiscal year.