Did you see this article about Prada and Mr. Bertelli in The Wall Street Journal Magazine this weekend?Very good but too short.
I would have loved for the writer to really dig deeper into the vision Mr. Bertelli has for the future of Prada.
I'm not into "conspiracy theories" but Mr.Bertelli bought and basically destroyed his nearest competition in Jil Sander and Helmut Lang. Some "analyst" think it was a huge debit-creating mistake on his part but I think it was genius to remove them from his retail/wholesale playing field.
I mean...if you can't beat'em, buy'em!
and then get rid of the namesake...and then sell them again!....Genius!
To be honest, at the end of the day, I don't think it was Mr. Bertelli being a crazy capitalist that created the drama but Jil and Helmut not wanting to give up control that ended this potential luxury mega-house.