Jones/Maxwell deal approved
The Federal Trade Commission has given its blessing to the acquisition of the Maxwell Shoe Co. by Jones Apparel. Earlier this month both firms filed suits against each other, with Jones seeking to acquire Maxwell and then Maxwell trying to block the sale.
Originally, Jones Apparel of Bristol, PA, offered to buy Maxwell of Boston, MA, for $297 million. Jones sought to buy Maxwell, which was producing a line of shoes under a Jones label, for $20 per share. Maxwell claimed the offer was too low and should have been $22.50 a share. Some have asked why Jones didn’t buy out the contract with Maxwell and produce its own label, but with Maxwell having all of the lasts and patterns, it would have taken more than a season to get the line up and running under Jones’s guidance. No date for the completion of the sale has been set at this time.
