Steve Madden takes over Dolce Vita for 60.3 million dollars

Footwear mogul Steve Madden has signed a deal to acquire American

shoe label Dolce Vita for 60.3 million dollars (36.1 million pounds), in cash. This step comes not long after the company purchased the intellectual property assets of Brian Atwoods from the Jones Group in March.

The agreement between the two companies is said to be subject to a working capital adjustment, and an earn-out agreement, which is depended on the label's future financial performance. Steve Madden declined to disclose the terms of the earn-out deal.

“This is very exciting. Dolce Vita is a great company, with great people,” said Steve Madden, founder and chief creative officer of his eponymous company to WWD. He added that his company felt “very comfortable with the [Dolce Vita] management team,” and the labels co-founder, Van Lamprou, once worked at his company a number of years ago.

Dolce Vita was founded in 2001 by Lamprou and Nick Lucio, who will continue to lead the label, whilst becoming part of the Steve Madden group. “We're really excited about partnering with the Madden team. They have the expertise,” said Lamprou.

“Retail is not our strength, and apparel is not our strength That is part of what makes our partnership with Steve Madden exciting ” Lucio noted that the group will focus on fine tuning Dolce Vita label's “product and creative vision,” before taking its strategy further over the next few months.

In the meantime, Steve Madden will remain on the lookout for further investment opportunities, for both small and larger deals, according to its CEO and chairman, Edward Rosenthal. “We may acquire one of our international distribution businesses, which we did in Canada a few years ago. Or we could acquire something in an adjacent product category.”