What’s REALLY happening at the House of Versace?!
Gianni Versace SpA’s board meets tonight and will decide the fate of Chief Executive Officer Giancarlo Di Risio, who may be fired after tensions flared over creative control with Donatella Versace, exacerbating disputes over cost cuts, three people familiar with the situation said. Di Risio will likely be dismissed at a board meeting in Milan tonight, the people said, declining to be identified because the decision hasn’t been formalized. Donatella Versace, the company’s creative director, was displeased that Di Risio sidestepped her to license a cheaper line designed by someone else, one of the people said. – from Bloomberg
Versace, the Italian fashion house, said on Monday night it would “immediately” begin implementing a strategy to fight the downturn in its fortunes as it sought to quash speculation about a boardroom rift that had called the future of its chief executive into question. After a meeting in Milan, the board of the fashion house said it “unanimously and categorically denies the existence of friction” between Giancarlo di Risio, Versace’s chief executive, and Donatella Versace, the label’s creative director, over the need to cut costs because of the global economic crisis. – from FT
The Versace family issued a statement Thursday saying that “the professional relationship between Versace and its CEO” hasn’t been terminated. Versace is focusing on “measures it should adopt to confront the effects of the economic downturn on the luxury sector,” the statement said. – from WSJ