Costa Mesa-Based Action Sports Brand, Volcom Purchased by French Group for $607.5 Million

By Chasen Marshall Wed., May 4 2011 at 5:47 PM

Categories: Wax On, Wax Off

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Sold for $607.5 million.
Richard Walcott and the folks at Volcom have good reason to pop a few bottles of the Champagne region's best bubbly. On Monday, the surf, snowboard and skateboard brand reported that it had been purchased by PPR, a French luxury and retail group.

Now, the question is how the Stone fits among some of PPR's high-end, luxury labels, including Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Alexander McQueen? Well, Walcott has 607,500,000 million reasons (that would be the buying price) not to give a damn.

Volcom, which uses the slogan, "Youth Against Establishment"--jeunesse contre l'establishmentje (someone check our translation!)--was started in 1991 by Wolcott, and went public in June 2005, at $19 per share. PPR purchased the brand at the price of $24.50 a share.

In a prepared statement, Wolcott called the Paris-based PPR "a perfect partner" to advance the reputation and visibility of the counter-culture brand. The only other somewhat similar brand in the PPR portfolio is Puma.

Let the "Volcom is so not core!" chants begin. Somewhere, we imagine, a t-shirt is burning.

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