Now this is an interesting business acquisition, announced today:

High Street beauty products retailer Body Shop has agreed to be taken over by French cosmetics giant L’Oreal in a deal worth £652m. The offer of 300p a share from the French firm is a hefty premium on its closing price of 268p. French L’Oreal makes a wide range of cosmetics, including Ambre Solaire sun cream and Lancome lipsticks. Body Shop – with its ethically-sourced products – was one of the icons of the High Street in the 1980s. Its fortunes have been hit in recent years as rivals started making similar products, but the retailer fought back and now has more than 2,000 stores in 53 countries. […] L’Oreal said it planned to operate the British company as a stand-alone business with Anita Roddick remaining in her current role as consultant.

Reading the official announcements on both companies’ websites involves an awful lot of hurdle-jumping with disclaimers, cautions and conditions galore before you can get to the actual press releases. I never knew there was so much regulatory, legal and jurisdictional concern over a relatively-straightforward acquisition announcement. Tightly-controlled communication.

(Sort of related – a year ago, I wrote a critical commentary about Anita Roddick’s website which produced an engaging response from her.)