The price Prada has agreed to pay is a big discount to the roughly $2.15 billion including debt that US-based Capri, then known as Michael Kors, paid for Versace in 2018 when it was sold by the Versace family and Blackstone.

Prada is getting a discount but not a good deal. After weeks of talks with Michael Kors-owner Capri , the Hong Kong-listed Italian group agreed to pay 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion) for Versace. Given Capri paid $2 billion for the brand famous for its Medusa logo in 2018,

For decades, the fiercely independent Prada SpA Chairman Patrizio Bertelli talked about the need for Italian fashion houses to acquire size and scale to take on sprawling industry behemoths like LVMH and Kering SA and also avoid being gobbled up by them.