Columbia To Buy Mountain Hardwear

American outdoor clothing giants Columbia are set to buy cutting-edge technical clothing brand Mountain Hardwear this week in a merger deal worth a cool 36 million dollars.

According to this story on the Outside web site, the merger will go ahead if approved by MHW shareholders and the brand will become a subsidiary of Columbia Sportswear Company.

The management of both companies are making encouraging noises about the deal, but for consumers, the deal, if it happens, should make little difference. Mountain Hardwear would carry on with its own management, workforce and independent base.

More importantly, there are no plans to take MHW downmarket and the company would continue to concentrate on high-end kit, while the Columbia brand sits in the mass middle market in the States.

'You won't see us going into the middle of the market level and you won't see their name on our products,' a MHW spokesperson is quoted as saying.

For more information see the story on the Outside site.