LVMH's $16 billion takeover of Tiffany collapses in acrimony and legal action

The $16 billion takeover of Tiffany by French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH was today declared formally dead as the Paris-based firm declared it was no longer interested in the deal, citing what appeared to be a US trade dispute with France.

A declaration this afternoon followed reports that Tiffany was going to sue its bidder for using delaying tactics to force it to renegotiate the deal.

Tiffany argues that LVMH has been deliberately stalling the merger process through antitrust regulators in order to negotiate the price downwards from the agreement reached before Covid-19.

The Financial Times reported that Tiffany will seek a court order in Delaware to force the deal through by the 24 November deadline.

However, LVMH issued a statement saying it had "learned of a letter" from France's European and Foreign Affairs Minister demanding the company defer the deal until 6 January due to a threat from the US to put taxes on French goods.

The statement appeared hastily written as it had spelling and grammatical mistakes. It said: "Furthermore, the board noted Tiffany & Co's requested [sic] to extend the "outside date" in the merger agreement from November 24th to December 3st".

LVMH said that breach of the November cutoff point meant that "the group LVMH will therefore not be able to complete the acquisition of Tiffany & Co."