Nike Sells For $225 Million. UMBRO Bought It To Make Up For The Gap With ADI.

After selling in June 1st this year,

Finally, I found a buyer for UMBRO.

Recently, the largest sports brand in the United States said it had agreed to sell its UMBRO brand to us brand management company Iconix B Rand G roup Inc at a price of 225 million US dollars.

The selling price is lower than the purchase price.

Parke, President and C E O of Nike, said: "stripping any business is a tough decision, but this operation will help us focus more on business with high potential growth opportunities."

It is expected that the sale of UMBRO will be completed by the end of 2012.

However, after the news came out of the street, the stock prices of the two companies did not change significantly.

But reporters noted that in 2008

The paction price was as high as 565 million US dollars, but now the pfer price of US $225 million is obviously lower than the original price.

"For Nike, we can not simply judge the success or failure of this business by paction price."

A securities analyst said that as the two largest sports brand in the world, Nike has absolute monopoly in the basketball market, while Adidas has long been a strong resource in football.

UMBRO was originally an old British football equipment manufacturer, founded by H um phrey brothers in 1924.

In the course of its growth, it has won the world cup honor with many green heroes. At the same time, because of its long-term sponsorship of the England national team and many football stars, it has a large number of fans all over the world.

Nike's initial acquisition of UMBRO aims to complement the gap between Adidas and soccer.

In the past 4 years, Nike has infiltrated its sponsorship and promotion into the field of football. At the same time, with the help of UMBRO, it gradually captured the latter's football resources.

It is reported that the sponsorship contract between UMBRO and England was originally due to end in 2018, but the Football Association announced in August this year that it will terminate cooperation with UMBRO, replacing Nike.

In addition, Nike also obtained a sponsorship contract from UMBRO, such as Manchester City and other heavyweight football teams.

China's three or four line strategy is not successful.

"It's just a pity that UMBRO is the brand."

Independent analyst Ma Gang believes that before being acquired, it acts as Nike and

After that, the second line sports brand also has a place in the domestic market.

In 2010, Nike publicly expressed its desire to enter the three or four tier market in China. At that time, UMBRO was regarded as the best way to lead Nike into China's three or four line market.

But industry senior people said that after Nike took over, it did not spend a lot of thought on the brand, not only the slow speed of product renewal, but also the lack of good quality in the channel.

At present, Nike has gone deep into China's three or four tier cities, and the attempt has not been successful.

Nike's channel expansion mainly relies on BELLE and Baosheng two professional channels, but the two do not have the ability to sink to the three or four tier cities in the short term.

Therefore, the pfer of UMBRO may be a turning point.

In this regard, Iconix B Rand G roup chief executive officer N eil C ole said: "this is a very exciting acquisition, we hope that in addition to inheriting the brand's fine traditions, it can expand its business."

Analysts speculate that Iconix is good at expanding the Chinese market with partners, and is likely to cooperate with BELLE and other channels in the future.

It is reported that in addition to UMBRO, Nike's wholly-owned affiliated brand C OLE H aan is also Hawking, this is a focus on leisure and dress categories.

The brand of package.

After that, Jordan, CONVERSE and H Urley brands, which are considered complementary in consumer relations, are still working for Nike in Nike.