Did you hear?… Oakley now welcome in Sunglass Hut stores again

In an amazing about face, Luxottica Group (the Italian-based sunglass company and new owner of Sunglass Hut) announced in a joint release with Oakley (NYSE:00), that Oakley was now welcome in Sunglass Hut stores again. As you may recall Luxottica (NYSE:LUX) initially booted Oakley from the Sunglass Hut stores following Luxottica’s purchase of them in April, sending Oakley scrambling to replace retail outlets and a huge void in sales. Now, a new agreement has been signed that is good through Dec. 31, 2004 and offers Luxottica preferred-pricing arrangements if certain sales minimums are reached each year. According to the release, this agreement has no affect on the pending litigation between the two companies regarding intellectual property infringement. SNEWS® View: Our bet is that the litigation regarding intellectual property is quickly resolved and that the two companies move on as if nothing ever happened. This is great news for Oakley and a good move by Luxottica. We have heard that customers were asking for Oakley glasses in large numbers at Sunglass Hut stores and rather than risk losing sales, Luxottica made a wise business decision. For its part Oakley will continue to expand its retail base so it won’t get caught with its retail pants down again, like it did this year when Luxottica initially dropped them from the company’s retail mix.