Right at the beginning of the year, there were reports of Kylie Jenner selling out 50% of her cosmetics company. It was one of the biggest cash-outs ever in recent history. On the other hand, some shocking revelations became public after this. According to a few of the fine prints of the deal, Kylie has always tried to inflate the success and size of her business. Moreover, it had become common for quite a few years now.
Even after more than ten years of being famous, the Jenner-Kardashian families have to face eye rolls among several jealous media consumers. However, it all comes down to their income that intrigues all the critics around. The Jenner-Kardashian family, their businesses, and wealth has been a topic of discussion for a long time. Besides, there are even articles, books, and podcasts about the same. However, the fact is that the famous family is thriving to find a spot in every annual Forbes list of richest celebrities.
At the beginning of this year, it took the family into a watershed situation when Kylie Jenner decided to sell off 50% of her cosmetic chain. Kylie Jenner is the youngest of the famous clan, and half of her beauty products line Kylie Cosmetics now belongs to Coty Inc. The latter is a giant name in the beauty industry and they finally fixed the deal with Jenner at a whopping $600 million. The entire transaction justified Forbes “Kylie Jenner is a billionaire” revelation in a better way. It seems that the rumor was pretty much true and that Kylie was indeed a billionaire before the coronavirus situation took over everything.
Kylie Jenner’s business tactics
According to Peter Harf, Chairman of the Coty’s, Kylie is a modern woman and rightly an icon too. He added that Jenner has a brilliant sense of how the beauty industry functions. Altogether he seemed very impressed by Jenner during the press conference regarding the announcement of the new acquisition last year in November. The deal was later finalized and sealed in January 2020. Later, several facts came to light when the fine prints of the deal were revealed. The truth seemed not-so-flattering after this. The filings were made public by Coty’s PR and it unveiled some of the best-kept secrets of the Jenner-Kardashian families.
It became evident that Kylie Cosmetics is not as big a brand as we have always known it to be. It is much less profitable and significantly smaller too. Therefore, it is quite alike from what the famous family has always portrayed it to be. They have constantly deceived the media, the cosmetic industry, as well as Forbes to believe in a complete hoax. Well, now it seems that white lies, outright fabrications, omissions are quite common for such a “perfect” family. What are they famous for?
Surprisingly, they are famous just for being famous, that’s it! So, keeping up with that kind of fame is difficult leading to such misdoings. The desperation of this family to show off their wealth is often compared to Donald Trump’s net worth obsession a couple of years back.
Secrets of the Jenner-Kardashian family
The Jenner-Kardashian can probably go to any extent to show the public and media how rich they are. It may even include lies, fraud, and forgery under the broad daylight. You will get a better understanding of this kind of mentality if you get to know about some of the OTT things that the family has done to be in the limelight always. They have invited media and people from the Forbes Magazine to their mansion.
The family also entertains media people to their CPA’s offices and show them forged tax return files with elevated figures. Unfortunately, all this to maintain their status in the public eye. Therefore, it created so much buzz when a part of their secrets was revealed during the Jenner-Coty acquisition earlier this year. It is the desperation of the ultra-rich family to look richer that makes them go till these extents.
According to Stephanie Wissink, an equity analyst from Jefferies dealing in consumer products also stated her opinion. She said that there is nothing wrong with what the Jenner-Kardashian family does. It is all to maintain their fame and brand value intact in the market. Wissink also says that every brand needs to look bigger than it originally is to sustain in the industry.
Based on all the recent revelations and development along with the impact of the coronavirus, Forbes has reached a new conclusion. According to them, Kylie Jenner is still not a billionaire despite the $340 million that she earned against the sale of a part of her cosmetic brand. Along with so many secrets being revealed, the major reason behind Kylie Jenner entering the cosmetic industry has also come to light. Besides, the woman is a part of quite a few other ventures too.
Kylie Jenner’s business
According to important sources, Kylie Jenner developed into a business owner following an embarrassing controversy. She and her mother very cleverly made a controversy into a promotion technique that landed Jenner in the industry. For quite a few years, several tabloid speculations were constantly being denied by the family. One of such controversies was that Kylie Jenner, despite being in the youngest in the clan was taking lip-fillers.
She kept denying this and later the truth came out leaving the entire family is a sheer embarrassment. Kylie’s mother Kriss took this as an opportunity and along with her daughter released a beauty line. The first lot of products included more than 15,000 lip kits including lipsticks and lip liners. The capital was spent by Kylie herself by taking out $2,50,000 from her total earning. Surprisingly, the promotions were so good.
The products that she released online were all sold out with just a minute or two. In an interview, Kylie said the products were sold immediately even before she could refresh the page just one. Each kit was priced at $29 and they vanished like magic. The $2,50,000 capital that was invested to start the business was what Jenner earned from her endorsements. Besides, she earns well from her modeling projects, and appearances in the “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” too.
The debut sale took place in November 2015 and by the end of the next year, Kylie was already a sensation debutant in the industry. She now had in her bag several kinds of products and some strong plans too. Besides, her Instagram account was now flooding with followers increasing every day.
The Forbes cover campaign
It is strange to see the level of competition among family members and here is just one example. When Kylie had started flourishing in the industry, sister Kim Kardashian featured on the July 2016 Forbes cover. Jenner’s fans went crazy and started a campaign to demand a Forbes Cover feature for her as well.
In the first one and a half years, the revenue earned by Kylie Cosmetics was over $400 million. As a result, Kylie’s takeaway was also over $250 million. They also made their accounts public to follow corporate norms. Later, meetings were often held at either the family office or Kylie’s house. She owned a palatial house in the Hidden Hills, California. During these occasions, Forbes got information about the revenues of the company and more.
They were shown tax returns files of 2016 that went up till $306 Million. Besides, Kylie could takeaway a profit of a whopping $110 million in such a short time. It was already enough to find her the second spot in the Forbes list of the richest celebrities for that year. The one leading the charts for the year was Taylor Swift.
Jenner’s accountant was quick to show them all reasons why she should be on the list. Moreover, all the documents looked promising and authentic as well. However, the story of nothing to a millionaire was not so believable. So, it was hard for Forbes to buy the story of Kylie Cosmetics reaching the $300 million mark in the first year itself. Despite all the signatures of Kylie Jenner, she failed to secure the desired spot on the Forbes list 2016. So, nothing came in hand at all for 2016.
The Forbes feature
The Forbes found a better way to appreciate Jenner later in 2017 when they mentioned about her real earnings. Due to other sources marking the $300 million implausible, the organizers came down to a more accurate $41 million as Jenner’s income. So, she was placed at no. 59 in the 2017 list of the richest celebrities.
According to sources, Kris was so shocked and angry that the Jenner’s PR team shot back at the magazine organizers. Later they took to WWD to announce that the cosmetic brand has even surpassed the $420 million mark. They also added that it was a record mark achieved by Kylie Cosmetics in just 18 months. The Jenner’s revealed the size of Brand Kylie for the first time publicly. They had also given enough proof to the makers of the show to prove their authenticity. It was a warning for other cosmetic brands.
Later, by the end of 2018, the popularity of Kylie Cosmetics was skyrocketing. News of sales and revenue crossing $350 million was all over the media. It was a trending topic of discussion in all the news channels. The Fortune and CNBC News were the most significant names that were promoting her even more. In this year Forbes tried to inquire about the authenticity of the revenue figures, and the result was positive from everywhere. According to several analysts, such a brand could earn whopping numbers.
According to the Piper Jaffrey research notes, the earning was now $400 million. While on the other hand, Oppenheimer stated that the sales will touch a $700 million mark by 2020. An e-commerce executive once said that there was no other celebrity with such a massive fan following ever. He was from Shopify, an online partner of Kylie Cosmetics.
Kylie’s reactions and later developments
In July 2019, Kylie Jenner was named the no. 27 in the Forbes list of the richest self-made women. Moreover, she also featured on the cover page of the magazine. She was just 20-year old when she had already achieved all of these and had a net worth of $900 million. Later, the young celebrity took to her Instagram handle to post a Thank You note for all the recognition and articles on her achievement. To this Kim Kardashian West congratulated her twice and commented that she was proud of Jenner. Plus, Kris also commented saying that finally, she was happy!
The very next month Kylie turned 21 and celebrated her birthday in Delilah, a West Hollywood nightclub. It was a huge party and the theme was barbie so almost everything was Pink. Dave Chappelle and Travis Scott were the performers of the day. All doubts about Kylie Jenner being a billionaire or not were finally cleared in November 2019. It was when Coty’s CFO arranged a press conference to declare the plan for the new acquisition. He made it very clear that Coty was going to take over 51% of Kylie Cosmetics for $600 Million. Therefore, the total net worth of the business became clear and it is $1.2 billion.
Final update
Coty’s CFO also said that this was a compelling collaboration for the betterment of both the brands. On behalf of his brand, he said that the deal was necessary to make Coty rank well in the market of modern cosmetics. Several analysts criticized the move and said that the brand was making the wrong decision. According to them, spending so much on a celebrity product line made no sense at all. As a result of the deal, Kylie lost half of her fortune at one go and the reason is the deterioration in the economy due to the pandemic.