BARNEYS NEW YORK SOLD TO DUBAI-BASED ISTITHMAR

Istithmar won the bidding for Barneys New York with an offer of $942.3 million in cash. The rival suitor, Fast Retailing Inc. of Japan, dropped out after the bid was accepted (money talks right?)

The Dubai-based Istithmar is paying Jones Apparel Group, Barneys' parent company. According to reports, former Barneys CEO Peter Boneparth was the genius behind acquiring labels (Gloria Vanderbilt, Kasper suits and l.e.i.)  and then putting Barney’s up for sale. Apparently the Jones Apparel Group board was against Boneparth’s decision to sell the company this year.

But the decision was a wise one: Jones acquired Barneys in 2004 for $400 million and sold it last week to Istithmar for $942 million. Jones Apparel Group (which includes Nine West and Anne Klein) is a $5 billion conglomerate.