The story
Founded by Martha Stewart in 1997.1
The company was founded in 1997 by Martha Stewart as an umbrella company for the various media and merchandising ventures linked to the Martha Stewart brand. It went public, via an initial public offering, on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on October 19, 1999. The stock opened at US$18 a share, but shot up to $38 a share, making Stewart an instant billionaire.
On August 6, 2002, a class-action lawsuit was filed against the company for misleading investors by issuing materially false and misleading statements, and its officers using insider information to avoid losses. A settlement of $30 million was approved in 2007.
In 2004, the company previously recognized as expense its estimate of annual subscription-acquisition costs rateably throughout the year. After reviewing this matter with its independent certified public accounting firm and its audit committee, the company determined on October 26, 2004, to change the method of accounting for interim period expense recognition of its subscription acquisition costs. The company recognized subscription-acquisition costs in the period in which the acquisition efforts took place and restated the financial statements.
On February 19, 2008, the company announced that it had reached an agreement with celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse to purchase certain business assets for $50 million: $45 million in cash and $5 million in stock. With the exclusion of Lagasse's restaurant chain and his foundation, the deal consisted of the rights to television programs such as Essence of Emeril and Emeril Live, Emeril Lagasse's Cookbook library, the emerils.com website, and kitchen and food products.
Stewart had served as president, chairwoman and chief executive officer of the company until being forced to resign as a result of the 2001 ImClone insider trading case. As part of an agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, she was banned from serving in any role that would allow her to prepare, audit or disclose financial results of a public company until August 2011. In effect, this banned her from serving as an officer of her own company.
Stewart rejoined the board of directors of her namesake company in September 2011 and became its chairwoman once again in May 2012.
In 2012, Macy's sued MSLO and J.C. Penney after the two companies decided, in 2011, to partner up and open up what would be called "Martha Stewart Home Shops". Macy's sued MSLO for "breach of contract" and sued J.C. Penney for "interfering with its agreement with Martha Stewart". Both of these lawsuits were combined in December 2013. Macy's goal was to stop J.C. Penney from selling MSLO merchandise that was supposed to be sold exclusively at Macy's. Macy's settled a portion of its lawsuit with MSLO over a home-products deal, however, Macy's continues to sue J.C. Penney. MSLO did not disclose the terms of the settlement. This lawsuit cost between "$7 million and $8 million in legal costs", according to MSLO's chief executive officer Daniel Dienst.
The Omnimedia media division stopped printing Everyday Food and Whole Living magazines while the Martha Stewart Living magazine moved from monthly to eleven issues per year in 2013.
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On December 4, 2015, it was announced that Sequential Brands Group acquired MSLO. As a result of its acquisition, MSLO requested that the NYSE suspend trading and de-list the company's common stock.
In March 2017, MSLO partnered with Marley Spoon Inc. to have Martha & Marley Spoon meal kit service delivered by Amazon Fresh to customers in Dallas, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., metropolitan areas.
Sequential Brands Group agreed in April 2019 to sell MSLO, including the Emeril brand, to Marquee Brands holding company for $175 million with benchmarked additional payments. The lease on MSLO's headquarters in the Starrett-Lehigh Building in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan was not included in the deal, but Marquee could assume the lease. Marquee Brands owns various companies, including the BCBG Max Azria brand, and is a subsidiary of asset manager Neuberger Berman.
From Wikipedia’s article on Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.6