P&G Scraps Deal to Buy Billie Razor Startup

Procter & Gamble has known as off its prepared takeover of women’s razor startup Billie, citing regulatory action to block the offer as anti-aggressive.

The Federal Trade Commission submitted a complaint last thirty day period alleging the offer was “likely to end result in considerable hurt by reducing opposition in between the sector chief and an crucial and developing head-to-head competitor.”

P&G owns the Gillette razor brand name when Billie has discovered a sector niche by marketing discounted women’s razors and attacking the field for its “pink tax” practice of charging much more for women’s goods.

“We were being unhappy by the FTC’s selection and sustain there was remarkable possible in combining Billie with P&G to improved serve much more buyers all over the earth,” the providers reported in a joint statement on Tuesday.

Even so, they additional, “after because of thought, we have mutually agreed that it is in both companies’ best pursuits not to have interaction in a extended legal problem, but instead to terminate our settlement and refocus our means on other small business priorities.”

P&G introduced in January 2020 it would receive New York-centered Billie for an undisclosed sum. The customer goods big reported the membership-centered, direct-to-customer brand name “complemented” its personal razor product portfolio dominated by the Gillette and Venus manufacturers.

“The proposed acquisition came just after a long time of declining sector share for P&G as very similar digitally-centered lower price razor competitors, this kind of as Dollar Shave Club and Harry’s, emerged to problem the company’s worldwide dominance in shaving,” the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

Grooming was the only device that posted a gross sales drop when P&G documented its quarterly final results in Oct 2019.  The purchase of Billie will “allow us to even further access millennial and Gen Z girls by a new, daring mind-set,” the unit’s chief executive reported.

But the FTC claimed the merger would probably hurt buyers by better costs for women’s razors and “arrests Billie’s progress as it was on the cusp of expanding into brick-and-mortar retail outlets.”

“Procter & Gamble’s abandonment of the acquisition of Billie is superior information for buyers who value minimal costs, quality, and innovation,” Ian Conner, director of the FTC’s bureau of opposition, reported Tuesday.

Courtesy of P&G

Federal Trade Commission, Gillette, P&G, Procter & Gamble, razors, Takeover