CSVL (owner of Agel and Longaberger) has reportedly made an offer to purchase Blyth (owner of Visalus and PartyLite).

CSVL is run by former chairman of Mary Kay, John Rochon.

Rochon left Mary Kay in 2001 after seeing the company increase in revenue by 6 times to about $3 Billion under his watch.

Rochon led a successful leveraged buyout of Mary Kay in 1985.

The offer is reportedly worth $268 Million.

Here is more on John Rochon from the CSVL website:

“John P. Rochon, has more than three and a half decades of wide-ranging success in finance, operations, business planning, sales, brand-building and marketing. He is a highly accomplished investor and business strategist. By the time he was 40 years old, Mr. Rochon was chairman and CEO of a Fortune 500 global consumer goods company, serving in that role for nearly a decade.

Mr. Rochon joined the direct selling cosmetics company Mary Kay Inc. in 1980. In 1984, he became chief financial officer, and subsequently became chairman and chief executive officer. Mr. Rochon was the architect of Mary Kay’s management-led leveraged buyout in 1985, arranging the financing and executing the transaction.

That LBO is regarded as one of the most successful in business history. During the following 16 years, the company’s retail revenue grew from $500 million to almost $3 billion and Mary Kay became the world’s best-selling brand of skin care and color cosmetics. Mr. Rochon became vice chairman and chief financial officer in 1987 and chairman and CEO in 1991.”

Interesting stuff.  At first glance I would have dismissed this news, but after looking into John Rochon’s history I am not as dismissive.

This sale certainly depends a lot more on the founders of Blythe than the young founders of Visalus.

One other interesting tidbit I found on the CSVL site is this:

“CVSL will announce additional companies as agreements are reached to bring them into the CVSL family.”

The company seems to be in acquisition mode.

We will be digging into CVSL more in the coming days. (Stay Tuned!)

Do you see this as a good or bad thing for Visalus?