Amazon Might Buy Net-A-Porter

Net-a-porter, the online designer fashion mecca, is in talks to be bought by retail giant Amazon for the cool sum of $2.19 billion, Women’s Wear Daily reports.

Via WWD:

Amazon has been looking to buy a luxury e-commerce company, and the financial community is abuzz with the prospect of Compagnie Financière Richemont spinning off Net-a-porter, which it purchased in 2010 and is not a core part of its hard luxury business.

Asked generally about Net-a-porter’s future at Richemont, Luca Solca, managing director at Exane BNP Paribas, said a possible scenario is for the luxury group to monetize the value of the fashion e-tailer, and sell it to a company willing to invest in pure-play luxury retail in the long term.

“One ideal candidate for that could potentially be Amazon,” Solca told WWD. “Amazon needs a separate mall to engage in luxury credibly, sort of what Tao Bao does with Tmall.” Earlier this year, Solca floated the idea of an initial public offering or divestment of Net-a-porter, and said it would be “a positive” for Richemont.

Whether Net-a-Porter gets bought by Amazon or not, it’ll still be too expensive for most of us.