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A Bridge Too Farfetch

Assessing the collateral damage and lessons learned—particularly that “winner-takes-all” nonsense—from Farfetch’s humbling: the delisting, the bridge loan, and failed Yoox Net-a-Porter merger.

Perhaps now, with a new backer, Farfetch C.E.O. José Neves will do what everyone wants him to do: focus on making the marketplace business profitable.
Perhaps now, with a new backer, Farfetch C.E.O. José Neves will do what everyone wants him to do: focus on making the marketplace business profitable. Photo: Bennett Raglin/Getty Images
Lauren Sherman
December 18, 2023

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On Monday, Farfetch, the luxury marketplace founded in 2008 by entrepreneur José Neves, got a new owner. E-commerce company Coupang, often called the Amazon of South Korea, gave Farfetch access to a $500 million bridge loan so that it could pay its bills and not go under. Farfetch, which stopped trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, was once valued at as much as $23 billion. Today, insiders are calling it a “ghost ship,” and it’s unclear what will happen to its subsidiaries, including Off-White operator New Guards Group and department store Browns. The deal to buy competitor Yoox Net-a-Porter Group from Richemont has been terminated, making this a multiple-front disaster.