Avon Slams Door on Another Suitor, Mary Kay Cosmetics
NEW YORK — Avon Products Inc. today snubbed a merger overture by Mary Kay Cosmetics Inc., a rival door-to-door cosmetics company, with Avon’s chairman--in a now familiar refrain--stating the company is not for sale.
“We see no advantage to combining our operations through some form of leveraged buyout or other arrangement,” Avon Chairman James E. Preston said in a letter to Mary Kay’s vice chairman, John Rochon.
Rochon wrote to Avon last week on behalf of an investment group expressing an interest in acquiring Avon, although a price was not named.
“Avon’s board has said that the company is not for sale and that this would be the worst time to sell--just when Avon is in a strong turnaround,” Preston said in the letter released by Avon.
Senior managers of Avon, which rejected a $2.1-billion proposal from Amway Corp. two weeks ago, unveiled a plan May 19 to boost earnings per share by 20% a year over the next few years.
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