British financial site Betaville has a pretty startling report today suggesting that one of Britain’s most beloved heritage brands could be merging with one of America’s. Its sources suggest that Coach has been at work with Evercore, the New York-based investment-banking firm, on a plan to merge with Burberry. The result could be a $20 billion deal.
While the idea seems a tad far-fetched — aesthetically, Stuart Vevers’s tough biker chicks don’t have much in common with Christopher Bailey’s Elizabethan waifs — the brands do have some notable similarities, like a focus on heritage. “Burberry could indeed be seen as the British Coach,” an analyst for BNP Paribas claimed to the Business of Fashion, which had a larger analysis of the report.
Whatever the truth of the rumor, it boosted Burberry’s shares significantly today. We’ve reached out to reps for both brands for comment, and will update this when we hear back.
