J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP) and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. (NYSE:MSO) have announced that they’ve revised their partnership agreement. The agreement covers their design and licensing partnership.
J.C. Penney has been battling Martha Stewart Living
Martha Stewart Living and J.C. Penney have been battling over arrangements for quite some time. About a month ago, sources suggested that J.C. Penney would cancel its merchandising agreement with Martha Stewart Living. Apparently they decided to revise it instead.
The big problem has been a lawsuit filed by Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE:M), which sued J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP) saying that it had the exclusive right to sell certain items made by Martha Stewart Living. In today’s announcement about the new agreement, there was no update about the lawsuit between the two department store chains.
New agreement is more focused
The newly announced agreement between the retail chain and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. (NYSE:MSO) provides a “more focused range of product categories over a shorter period of time.” The original agreement was dated Dec. 6, 2011. The agreement now goes through June 30, 2017.
Martha Stewart Living said it will keep designing branded products for J.C. Penney in these categories: window treatments and hardware, holiday and celebrations, rugs, and lighting. In exchange, the company will receive design fees, guaranteed minimum royalties, and the 11 million shares of its stock which are currently owned by J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP).
J.C. Penney, Martha Stewart issue statements
“We are pleased to announce this revised commercial agreement,” said Martha Stewart, Founder and Non-Executive Chairman of MSLO in a statement. “We are designing excellent products for 2014, and we look forward to seeing them in stores and online at jcp.com.”
“We are happy to be moving forward and continuing to provide our customers with quality products from the MarthaHome(TM) collection, which includes MarthaWindow(TM), one of our best-selling lines of window treatments,” J.C. Penney CEO Myron E. (Mike) Ullman, III, said in the same statement.
