Over the past 20 years, Italy-based Luxottica has expanded through numerous acquisitions and grown into the world’s leading vertically integrated eyewear company, with US$9.7 billion in annual sales and a market capitalization of US$26 billion. Luxottica designs, manufactures and distributes eyewear and sunglasses. The group’s wholesale distribution network spans 150 countries and the retail network includes 8,000 stores. Luxottica’s acquisitions have included purchases of sunglass manufacturers, optical retailers and eyewear wholesalers in North America, Europe, Latin America and Australasia. Some of the company’s largest and most prominent acquisitions included Oakley, Rayban, Sunglass Hut and Lens Crafters. The global eyewear market is worth US$121 billion and Luxottica is the leading eyewear company, with a 14% share in 2015, according to Euromonitor. On January 30, Luxottica announced an agreement to acquire 100% of Óticas Carol, one of the largest optical retail franchisors in Brazil. Óticas Carol has 950 retail franchise stores and annual sales of approximately US$214 million. The transaction is valued at US$118 million and expected to close in 1H17. Luxottica also recently announced a mega merger with France-based ophthalmic lens manufacturer Essilor to form a powerhouse eyewear industry player in a deal valued at nearly US$50 billion. Essilor is one of the main global ophthalmic lens manufacturers. The long-anticipated deal is expected to be completed in 2H17. Luxottica’s long history of acquisitions is depicted in the table below.

(a) Converted to USD at the exchange rate on January 30, 2017. (b) Reported annual sales at the time of the acquisition. (c) Forecast next-year annual sales at the time of acquisition. Source: Company reports