In 1971, soon after his graduation, Arnault began work for his father's company. With the help of Antoine Bernheim, a senior partner of
Lazard Frères, Arnault acquired the
Financière Agache, a
luxury goods company. He became the CEO of Financière Agache and subsequently won the bidding war for Boussac Saint-Frères, buying the group for a ceremonial one franc and effectively taking control of Boussac Saint-Frères. After Arnault bought Boussac, he laid off 9,000 workers in two years, after which he acquired the nickname "The Terminator". In July 1988, Arnault provided $1.6 billion to form a holding company with
Guinness that held 24% of LVMH's shares. In response to rumors that the Louis Vuitton group was buying LVMH's stock to form a "blocking minority", Arnault spent $600 million to buy 13.5% more of LVMH, making him LVMH's largest shareholder. LVMH had been created on the premise that the conglomerate would be too large for a single hostile raider.
1989–2001: LVMH's initial expansion and growth After assuming leadership, Arnault led the company through an ambitious development plan, transforming it into one of the largest luxury groups in the world, alongside Swiss luxury giant
Richemont and French-based
Kering. In eleven years, annual sales and profit rose by a factor of 5, and the
market value of LVMH increased by a factor of 15. In July 1988, Arnault acquired
Céline. La Tribune never achieved the desired success, despite his 150 million euro investment, and he sold it in November 2007 to buy a different French economic newspaper,
Les Échos, for €240 million. In 1994, LVMH acquired the perfume firm
Guerlain. In 1996, Arnault bought out
Loewe, followed by
Marc Jacobs and
Sephora in 1997. Five more brands were also integrated into the group:
Thomas Pink in 1999,
Emilio Pucci in 2000, and
Fendi,
DKNY, and
La Samaritaine in 2001. In the 1990s, Arnault decided to develop a center in New York to manage LVMH's presence in the United States. He chose Christian de Portzamparreke to supervise this project. The result was the
LVMH Tower that opened in December 1999. That same year, Arnault turned his eyes to
Gucci, an Italian leather goods company, which was run by
Tom Ford and
Domenico De Sole. He discreetly amassed a 5 percent stake in the company before being detected. to add to the group's other wine property
Château d'Yquem. From 1998 to 2001, Arnault invested in a variety of web companies such as
Boo.com, Libertysurf, and
Zebank through his holding Europatweb. Groupe Arnault also invested in
Netflix in 1999.
Since 2001: Increasing success and profitability In 2007, Blue Capital announced that Arnault owned jointly with the California property firm
Colony Capital 10.69% of France's largest supermarket retailer and the world's second-largest food distributor
Carrefour. In 2008, he entered the yacht business and bought
Princess Yachts for 253 million euros. He subsequently took control of
Royal van Lent shipyard for an almost identical amount. From 2010 until 2013, Arnault was a member of the Board of Advisors of the Malaysian
1MDB fund. On 7 March 2011, Arnault announced the acquisition of 50.4% of family-owned shares of the Italian jeweler
Bulgari, to make a tender offer for the rest, which was publicly owned. The transaction was worth $5.2 billion. In 2011, Arnault invested $641 million in establishing LCapitalAsia. On 7 March 2013,
National Business Daily reported that mid-priced clothing brand QDA would open stores with the assistance of Arnault's private equity firm LCapitalAsia and Chinese apparel company Xin Hee Co., Ltd. in Beijing. In 2016, LVMH sold DKNY to
G-III Apparel Group. In April 2017, Arnault announced the acquisition of Christian Dior haute couture, leather, both men's and women's ready-to-wear, and footwear lines, which integrated the entire Christian Dior brand within LVMH. By January 2018, Arnault had led the company to record sales of €42.6 billion in 2017, 13% over the previous year, as all divisions turned in strong performances. That same year, the net profit increased by 29%. In November 2019, Arnault planned to acquire
Tiffany & Co. for approximately US$16.2 billion. The deal was expected to close by June 2020. LVMH then stated in September 2020 that the takeover would not proceed and that the deal was "invalid" because Tiffany handled the business during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subsequently, Tiffany filed suit against LVMH, asking the court to compel the purchase or to assess damages against the defendant; LVMH planned to counter-sue, alleging that mismanagement had invalidated the purchase agreement. In mid-September 2020, a reliable source told
Forbes that the reason for Arnault's decision to cancel the Tiffany purchase was purely financial: Tiffany was paying millions in dividends to shareholders despite a financial loss of US$32 million during the pandemic. Upon examination of financial records, Arnault discovered that some US$70 million had already been paid out by Tiffany, with an additional US$70 million scheduled to be paid in November 2020. LVMH filed a counterclaim against the court action commenced by Tiffany; a statement issued by LVMH blamed Tiffany's mismanagement during the pandemic and claimed that it was "burning cash and reporting losses". In late October 2020, Tiffany and LVMH agreed to the original takeover plan, though at a slightly reduced price of nearly $16 billion, a minor reduction of 2.6% from the aforementioned deal. The new deal reduced the amount paid per share by LVMH from the original price of $135 to $131.50. LVMH completed the purchase of Tiffany in January 2021. Under Arnault's leadership, LVMH has grown to become the largest company by market capitalization in the
eurozone, with a record of 313 billion euros ($382 billion) as of May 2021. Arnault has promoted decisions toward decentralizing the group's brands as a business strategy. As a result of these measures, brands under the LVMH umbrella such as Tiffany are still viewed as independent firms with their history. In November 2024, the Arnault family acquired a majority ownership stake in French
football club
Paris FC, which was then playing in
Ligue 2, the second tier of the French football system. Later that season, the club achieved promotion to
Ligue 1 for the first time in 46 years. == Personal life ==