Good morning! Tate brothers are charged with rape, Christine Lagarde plans to finish her term as ECB president, and Hailey Bieber sells Rhode for a blockbuster $1 billion.
– Blockbuster beauty. It’s been a slow few years for beauty M&A—industry-watchers have been waiting for the sales of big brands like Glossier and Rare Beauty. Those so far haven’t materialized, but an acquisition yesterday shook up the category. E.l.f. Beauty announced its purchase of Hailey Bieber’s three-year-old Rhode for $1 billion.
Rhode launched in 2022, quickly gaining a foothold with Gen Z through its skincare, lip balms, and viral phone case. Bieber’s built-in audience of 54 million on Instagram alone (for the uninitiated, she is an incredibly popular influencer and married to pop star Justin Bieber) helped catapult the brand and its “milky” essences and glazes to the top of its category after a crowded few years for celebrity-fronted beauty.
E.l.f. noticed the speed with which Rhode grew. “Hailey has built a brand that has gone from zero dollars to $212 million in less than three years,” e.l.f. CFO Mandy Fields told my colleague Sheryl Estrada. That number is off of Rhode’s direct to consumer business; it’s slated to launch in Sephora later this year.
Both e.l.f. and Rhode are popular with Gen Z and rising beauty consumers Gen Alpha, with a pulse on culture at a relatively affordable price point. “Rhode is a brand where consumers will camp out overnight, wait 14 hours in a line for a pop-up in L.A., not not just for the product, but to buy into the entire lifestyle of the brand,” e.l.f. CEO Tarang Amin told Fortune. “So that is the thing that we believe has real staying power: her instincts, her aesthetic, her vision for this brand.” He added that Rhode diversifies the portfolio for e.l.f., which is a $1.3 billion public company.
Will Rhode’s acquisition crack open the M&A door for the other beauty brands waiting in the wings? While Rhode is a less mature business than some of the other big names out there—making it easier to find a buyer—the industry was buzzing with the news yesterday and will be watching for a thaw.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- 21 charges. “Manosphere” influencers Andrew and Tristian Tate were charged in the U.K. with rape, actual bodily harm, and human trafficking, among other offenses. The brothers have denied wrongdoing. Reuters
- Until the end. Following reports that European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde was in talks to join the World Economic Forum, the Bank has said Lagarde is “determined to complete her term.” After her appointment in 2019, Lagarde’s term is set to end in late 2027. Wall Street Journal
- Cancer care. The Trump administration’s cuts to the National Institutes of Health are having dangerous consequences—one woman shares how her treatment has been delayed for her stage 4 colorectal cancer. Guardian
- On the scene. Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay is launching a production company called Mighty Entertainment, which will produce scripted and unscripted content. My Mom Jayne, the company’s first project and Hargitay’s first directed feature film (about her mother, the actress Jayne Mansfield), premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Variety
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Kirsten Lynch stepped down as CEO and director of the board at Vail Resorts after three and half years leading the company.
World Bank Group appointed Lauren Tilstra as director of communications and content; Roya Rahmani as director of global engagement; and Edith Jibunoh as director of external affairs. Most recently, Tilstra was chief of staff and AVP ofgGlobal communications at Verizon. Rahmani is currently chair of Delphos International. Jibunoh was most recently manager for external and corporate relations in the East Africa vice presidency for the World Bank Group.
Radicle Science, a healthtech company for the wellness space, named Liya Sharif Lancia CMO. She is the cofounder of Cercle.
ON MY RADAR
A brain-dead woman is being kept on machines to gestate a fetus. It was inevitable New York Times
Donald Trump’s war on gender is also a war on government New Yorker
The anatomy of an Alex Cooper interview Vulture
PARTING WORDS
“I never felt that I belonged, but that’s okay.”
— Actor Kathy Bates on Hollywood
