Walmart Sells Bonobos to WHP Global and Express for $75 Million — Retail Bum

Walmart announced the sale of the men’s clothing brand Bonobos to brand management company WHP Global and Express for $75 million, significantly lower than the amount it spent acquiring the brand six years ago.

The company acquired Bonobos for $310 million in 2017 under the leadership of Marc Lore, the founder of Jet.com and Walmart’s former eCommerce president. Lore oversaw a string of direct-to-consumer (DTC) acquisitions, including Necessities, Shoes.com, and ModCloth, at a time when Walmart was looking to expand into new verticals and stave off rising competition from Amazon. All of the other acquisitions have since been divested.

The deal marks the sales of the second DTC brand acquired during Lore’s tenure that Walmart has divested this year. In February, the company sold Moosejaw to Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Under the terms of the deal, brand management company WHP Global will pay $50 million for the Bonobos brand, while Express will receive Bonobos’s operating assets and associated liabilities for $25 million, according to a news release.

That said, Express will enter into a licensing agreement with WHP, allowing it to operate Bonobos in exchange for royalty fees. The deal is expected to close in Express’s second fiscal quarter of…