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Better Get Vennette

A flurry of recent beauty biz M&A deals are notable not just because they’re more targeted and considered—the days of the bidding war are on the wane—but because they didn’t involve industry rainmaker Vennette Ho.

Vennette Ho
Several insiders concurred that “Vennette is still the go-to” and that Ho “hasn’t lost her touch.” Photo: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for Financo
Rachel Strugatz
June 18, 2025

After an underwhelming 2024 and sluggish start to 2025, we’re finally seeing a blitz of M&A activity in the beauty industry, with three major acquisitions announced in less than a month: Church & Dwight bought Touchland ($880 million), e.l.f. Beauty got its hands on Rhode ($1 billion), and L’Oréal scooped up Medik8 ($1.1 billion). Traditionally, the category’s M&A business has been dominated by a small handful of brand-name dealmakers. So I was somewhat surprised to learn that Raymond James’s Vennette Ho, the industry’s go-to banker, wasn’t attached to any of them.