Estee Lauder Closes BECCA Acquisition

The Estee Lauder companies said Monday that it has closed its acquisition of BECCA, in a deal that was announced last month.

Though the terms of the deal were not officially disclosed, some industry observers had pegged the purchase price at about $200 million.

Forbes reported that the deal is is in part an attempt by Estee Lauder to find inroads with younger customers “by joining up with the likes of Kendall Jenner” as BECCA sells foundations, blushes and other skin care products.

BECCA traces its genesis back to 2001, and Forbes stated that the firm could earn as much as $80 million this year alone. The focus for BECCA is on women of color and has a presence on social media through widely followed individuals including Jaclyn Hill. The teen beauty market overall, said the financial publication, is seeing growth of as much as 20 percent annually, while an analyst with Piper Jaffray has said that Estee Lauder has needed to hold on to market share in this arena.

As for the cosmetics giant itself, Estee Lauder has seen sales grow overall in the latest annual period to the tune of 5 percent, but within that headline statistic, makeup sales ramped up 9 percent for the year that ended June 30, while skin care was down 1 percent.