From the Seattle Times:
Four-year-old Dollar Shave Club sold for $1 billion to Unilever
Dollar Shave Club, one of the most recognizable brands to emerge from Los Angeles’ startup scene, set out to overhaul the razor-blade business four years ago with an online subscription service for affordable blades.
Now the company is joining forces with the kind of corporate giant it aimed to undermine.
Unilever, the London-based consumer goods and food behemoth, is paying $1 billion to acquire Dollar Shave Club.
About the company:
Born out of a holiday-party conversation in 2010, Dollar Shave Club was launched by founder Mike Dubin two years later. Since then, it has amassed 3.2 million subscribers and expanded with a line of men’s hair and skin products as well as wet wipes.
And the deal:
Dollar Shave Club will remain largely independent to build its brand, which was made famous by a series of tongue-in-cheek viral videos starring Dubin. The company also will get to retain all 190 of its employees, Dubin said.
Sweet! Unilever is smart enough to recognize that corporate culture is vitally important not only to the customers but to the employees morale and productivity. If they tried to come in with their own pointy-haired bosses, it would kill the business.
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