At the end of last month Steve Madden Ltd. bought The Topline Corp., a privately held shoe company based in Washington state for $55 million in cash. Topline's brand names include Report, Report Signature and R2 by Report. In 2010 Topline had a reported revenue of $189 million. The companies didn't clarify the new job for Topline CEO William Snowden, but he said in a statement that he looked forward to working with the Madden team. Steve Madden CEO Edward Rosenfeld said that Topline's private-label business "is one of the best in our industry and is highly complementary to our existing private-label footwear business."
It remains to be seen how the transition will play out. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with the Topline corporate office which is based here in Factoria. Is the writing already on the wall that their operations will inevitably be consolidated with the Steve Madden offices in New York? :( I hope not. I have several designer friends who work at the Topline home office.
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