Fortune Brands announced this morning that Acushnet was being .
Acushnet has been on the chopping block for a while now. They’re a strong business, but Fortune Brands wants to focus on its core business of liquor at the urging of activist shareholder William Ackerman.
A number of bidders reportedly entered the fray trying to snap up Acushnet, who owns Titleist and Footjoy. Probably the most unexpected development (at least by me) was Callaway putting together a deal with a private equity group to try to raise the cash needed to buy the much bigger Acushnet.
However, it always seemed likely that Acushnet would go to an Asian buyer with a lot of cash and the desire to break into the US market with a premium set of brands.
Fila is one of the oldest sports brands in the world, having been founded in 1911. However, it was taken over by a Korean group in 2007, making it the largest Korean sportswear brand.
The biggest question that this raises for me is what will be the impact on the PGA Tour itself and the players schedules. Will we see a PGA Tour event in Korea? Will we see more Titleist players showing up at events in Asia?
