• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, June 22, 2015

As expected following reports last week, retail licensing firm Sequential Brands Group has signed an agreement to acquire Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, the companies announced Monday. Under the terms of the deal, Sequential is buying all outstanding shares in MSLO at a price of $6.15 per share, with half in cash and half in stock, for a total sale price of $353 million.

The sale price offers a premium of 20.5% over MSLO’s price per share of $5.10 on Wednesday, June 17, 2015, before rumors began to circulate of an impending deal.

The unconfirmed rumors caused the price to spike, reaching $6.98 on Friday, before returning to $6.12 today.

Although MSLO founder and domestic icon Martha Stewart will continue serving as chief creative officer, as well as joining the Sequential board of directors, the acquisition represents the end of MSLO as an independent company.

Previously, MSLO turned over responsibility for most of its media business to Meredith Corp., which took over responsibility for ad sales and marketing for flagship magazine Martha Stewart Living through a 10-year licensing agreement. That left the company’s substantial merchandising business, which now comes under the control of Sequential.

Stewart stated: “With our media business operations now successfully transitioned to Meredith, we now have the opportunity to tap into Sequential's expertise and resources to expand our merchandising business both domestically and abroad.”

Sequential’s global retail licensing business, spanning a variety of consumer brands in categories including home, fashion, lifestyle, and active, is expected to generate sales of $3.75 billion this year.