Martha Stewart’s company sold in a deal valued at $353 million.
NEW YORK — Martha Stewart single-handedly changed the game for home decorating and cooking in the late 1990s, becoming the “it” designer for all things domestic.
But the announcement on Monday of an acquisition of her media and merchandising empire in a deal that values the company at far less than in it was worth in its glory days shows how much her brand has eroded.
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia is being sold to Sequential Brands Group, which owns and licenses such brands as Ellen Tracy and Jessica Simpson, in a deal valued at $353 million. That’s a fraction of the $1.8 billion valuation when the company went public in 1999.
In recent years, the company has been hit with heavy competition. No longer were people looking to get their information from a single source, but rather they were getting decorating and cooking advice from other domestic divas like Rachel Ray and everyday bloggers, cake baking and the like. That was compounded by the fact that Stewart’s recipes and decorating rules didn’t quite resonate with younger customers searching for quick solutions on their iPhone.
Adding to these challenges were legal woes of both the personality and the company bearing her name. Stewart was convicted in 2004 on federal criminal charges of lying to prosecutors about selling ImClone shares a day before the Food and Drug Administration announced it declined to review the company’s application for a cancer drug. Stewart rejoined the board of Martha Stewart Living in 2011 after a five-year ban that was part of a settlement with regulators related to her conviction.
Then, Stewart brokered a merchandising deal with J.C. Penney in late 2011 that competed with a prior exclusive deal with Macy’s. As a result, Martha Stewart got into a three-year court battle with J.C. Penney and Macy’s, ending with Penney terminating its deal that covered certain products like cookware and towels with the company.
“This merger is positioned to further the growth and expansion of the unique Martha home and lifestyle brand,” Stewart said in a statement.