Dreams might come true!
Richard ‘Wooly’ Woolcott, founder and onetime CEO of Volcom, is rumored to be sniffing around a re-purchase of his former brand. You most certainly are aware of Volcom’s storied history. It, in so many ways, is a microcosm of the entire surf industry and let us recount here and quickly.
The brand was dreamed up by pals Woolcott and Tucker Hall whilst on a snowboard trip to Tahoe in 1991 and started out of a garage later that year. Its iconic “stone” logo was soon must have as surf’s zeitgeist was reaching its very height. Nobody smelled the 20+ year apocalypse just around the corner and Volcom Inc. was floated on NASDAQ raising a whopping $89 million in its initial public offering. Six years later, the French multinational PPR (now Kering) launched a friendly takeover, valuing the company at $608 million dollars.
And that is where things are today. Oh of course the 20+ year apocalypse began somewhere in there and Kering has been rumored to be underwhelmed by Volcom’s performance but c’est la vie, as they say, until today.
For today it is rumored that the boys, led by Wooly, are back and in a buying mood.
“Why?” you ask.
Well, my source tells it that Wooly et. al. were buoyed by Billabong’s low low low price sale to Boardriders, which came in at around one Australian dollar per share. By way of comparison, PPR (Kering) bought its friendly takeover Volcom stock at $24 American dollars per share.
So.
If Wooly et. al. could convince Kering that Volcom is a one dollar dog and it would be best for everyone to jettison then voila, as they say. The original crew would have their baby back for 1/24th of the price.
A good deal by any measure.
Now.
Have you ever sold anything you later regretted? I don’t mean to go on a tangent here but as a kid I had a secondhand pair of Nike Air Pressures and I thought it was the coolest shoe ever. Then they got lost but I found a brand new pair on ebay last year so bought them and I was so excited when they came but I realized they don’t look good with anything and now I am sad.
Time for more Percocet.
Excuse me.
Bring Fuckin N Fightin back to surfing!
Reebok Pumps were way better.
true to thi$
Let’s do an ICO for our new token called VolcomCoin instead. It will run on the Ethereum blockchain and therefore be a ERC20 token. We can buy the brand back with the millions and make it cooler than ever.
Nobody gives a damn about this, but Chas is assuming: 1. Billabong and Volcom had/have a similar number of shares outstanding/available for purchase, and 2. Woolcott will just want a majority stake with corresponding board seats on the newly spun off Volcom, as opposed to the entire slew of outstanding shares. Options granted to current holders are not an issue since they’re likely not in the money. 3. The comparison between Billabong sale may also be complicated by a large assumption of debt sitting on the balance sheet by Boardriders… Hard to compare by share price alone is my point, but the rumor that the founder is looking at the company is interesting, and ultimately stupid, stupid, stupid. Just go start a new brand, aka Vissla, and have fun with it. Ever hear someone say, “Hey, let’s go to that 24 year old nightclub?” no. no, you haven’t.
It’s almost as if he thinks all companies have the same fixed number of shares so you can make a direct comparison. If there were a billion shares of Billablong at $1 a share and only a million shares of Volcom at 24 bucks, Billabong would be 41 times bigger, not 24 times smaller.
Agreed! terrible comparison, if you used the very crude revenue comparison you could see a world where Volcom might sell for 45-50 million, which could be interesting… Anything over 100m would be a crazy bet…
man I don’t regret seeling nothing man , id sell all my trophy’s and titles for a little glass BBQ dudes live fast surf rad write a book & style into slippers
No doubt! I also dwell on past loves, mistakes and missed opportunities. I’m no better than a teeenage girl on Facebook.
yep I dwell on old girlfriends sold – the old “sliding doors” concept for sure!!!
Love the Air Pressures. But yeah, classic 90s basketball shoes don’t really go with today’s hemlines, alas.
Oh, I disagree! The high water style of today puts those terrible high tops on display!
Invest in my company Rape Knife.
I’m in!
A sweet as fuck 6’8″ Maurice Cole Reverse V. Best tube riding board in 6-8 ft waves i have ever had. I think about it a lot.
Dims please?
No idea! Just remember steering that thing through barrel after barrel and thinking I was in control of the universe. 25 years on, this is certainly not the case.
haha, So funny back in the day we thought we were Lords of the Universe , but age and mortality still has not been defeated, so there is a moment of feeling bullet proof but it is just a moment….just like the Surf Brands , Volcom/Quik/Bong/Hurley/RC …all sold or selling , because they are done!
The exciting angle is that there is a rebuild started , but still a lot more grief!
Seriously mate, that board was like nothing I’ve ridden before or since. Picked it up second hand from MCD in Torquay. Think it was Case’s. Sold it to a mate for $200, a few months later half of it got blown out to sea down south. Good memories 🙂
fuckin hell Chas, you sure do make some crook fashion choices
I don’t know, trying to use Ashtons arse as an anklet had potential.
What about that restraining order?
Might I make a suggestion if Woolcott et. al. buys back Volcom. Turn the Stone upside down. Then market the brand as it’s own dooms day clock sorta thing where mileStones™ are achieved with slight turn of the Stone back towards being upright. Get it back to where it started where it always should have stayed to begin with. Then fucking destroy RVCA! Please!
rvca is hipster crap. but volcom does make some good snow equipment. and they aint got one guy on the wct? they pay a lot for noa and balaram to finger each other, but get no return
Yago and Joan Duru
Chew ‘em up before swallowing, way better… (thought you were off them? Shoulder surgery not as fun as advertised, huh?)