Harry’s, the upstart shaving company, is being acquired by the owner of Schick razors for $1.37 billion.
Harry’s has bedeviled brands like Schick and Gillette for years using innovative subscription plans and sleek packaging.
Under the agreement announced Thursday, investors in Harry’s Inc. will take a stake of about 11% of Edgewell Personal Care Co., which manages Schick and other brands. Edgewell gets the Harry’s brand and access to the company’s prized direct-to-consumer marketing base.
Harry’s, based in New York, has captured about 2% of the $2.8 billion men’s shaving industry since its founding in 2013, according to Euromonitor market research firm.
Harry’s founders, Andy Katz-Mayfield and Jeff Raider, will become co-presidents of Edgewell’s U.S. operations when the deal closes, probably in early 2020.
Business filings grow 9% in Tennessee
New business filings increased 9 percent in the first quarter of 2019 compared to the previous year, according to a report released Thursday by Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett. This marked 30 consecutive quarters of positive year-over-year new business growth in Tennessee.
“We continue to see an increase in the number of new business entities in Tennessee, pointing to healthy economic growth across the state,” Tre said.
In the first three months of the year, 12,512 new entity filings were recorded in the first quarter of 2019, including 850 in Hamilton County.
“New entity filings suggest that Tennessee’s 10-year economic expansion will continue over the next year,” said William Fox, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee. “As a result, the historically low unemployment rate is likely to fall even farther.”
Tennessee’s jobless rate held steady at an all-time low of 3.2 percent for the past two months.
Mortgage rates decline; 30-year average 4.10%
U.S. long-term mortgage rates declined this week for a second straight week, reversing the upward trend in April as a lure to potential home buyers.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac says the average rate on the 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage fell to 4.10% from 4.14% last week. By contrast, a year ago the benchmark rate stood at 4.55%.
The average rate for 15-year, fixed-rate home loans eased this week to 3.57% from 3.60% last week.
Trade deficit up in February
The U.S. trade deficit increased slightly in March even though the deficit with China fell to the lowest point in five years.
The deficit in goods and services edged up 1.5% to $50 billion in March, after falling 3.6% in February, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. The deficit is the difference between what America sells to the rest of the world and what it imports.
Exports rose 1% to $212 billion in March while imports rose a slightly faster 1.1% to $262 billion.
The deficit in goods with China dropped 16.2% to $20.7 billion, the lowest level since March 2014.
The new trade report showed that the deficit with China for the first three months of this year totals $80 billion, still the largest with any country, but down 12.2% from the same period a year ago.
The deficit with Mexico jumped to $9.5 billion in March, the highest on record, while the deficit with Canada was unchanged at $1.4 billion.