FiloBlu and Diana E-Commerce Corporation join forces to form a new Italian e-commerce group

Fashion Magazine, 10/11/2022

Leading shopping experience player FiloBlu has teamed up with Diana Corp. – the creativity, technology and strategy hub for new digital experiences – to create a new Italian e-commerce group.

Founded in 2009 by Christian Nucibella, FiloBlu is a strategic partner for growth in digital business that specializes in ecosystem management for online activities. Diana Corp. was founded in 2007 by Stefano Mocellini and Margherita Silvestri. It is a leading name in e-commerce channel design, creation and management for fashion, luxury and lifestyle brands.

The two companies will remain independent and their positioning will be different, but they will work in synergy in order to provide their clients with a comprehensive range of services that can cater to all their online sales needs: from CRM and web marketing to content and web design. Everyone in the group will now be able to count on colleagues offering new professional skills and services, all of which revolve around an exceptional capacity to develop, manage and pave the way to success for projects on the three biggest e-commerce platforms around right now: Adobe Commerce (Magento), Shopify and Salesforce Commerce Cloud.

FiloBlu’s acquisition of Diana Corp. is part of an investment plan by Gradiente SGR that aims to bolster its leading status in the digital market. Alberto Arcolin – the current CEO of FiloBlu – has been appointed to take the helm of Diana Corp. as its Chief Executive Officer. Company founder Stefano Mocellini will remain in his role as the President and actively contribute to its future and development, while also joining the main shareholders and founders and Board of Directors at FiloBlu.

“By bringing together Diana and FiloBlu, we’ve achieved our goal of creating the top provider of digital services for online sales. We have an exceptional end-to-end array of all of the services that companies might need, covering a variety of levels and technologies. Rather than an ecosystem built by consultants in a laboratory, it stems from the passion and vision of professionals who put their experience into practice every day, creating and nurturing the growth of unique projects,” state Pietro Busnardo and Lorena Lorenzon of Gradiente SGR.

“We’ve come together to form a new leading player in terms of innovation, experience and the capacity to realize clients’ potential through an omnichannel approach. These are two companies with complementary visions that have reached maturity and forged a strategic alliance in order to provide a range of services that present significant growth opportunities. FiloBlu is ready to write a new chapter in the story of Italian digital innovation. This is the natural next step in our journey and it will give us fresh impetus to boost our in-house selection of skills and investments in technology. It’s a new opportunity to generate value by creating an integrated, innovative ecosystem, offering strategic and operational solutions and guiding companies through online business acceleration,” says Alberto Arcolin, the CEO of FiloBlu.

“Diana has always been renowned for cultivating appreciation of beauty and technological excellence. We’ve grown a lot and it’s immensely satisfying to have reached this point, which is a new beginning: we’ve chosen to take the outstanding, exciting opportunity to open up fresh possibilities thanks to a synergistic new alliance with FiloBlu, which has developed first-rate expertise on different fronts from us,” note Stefano Mocellini and Margherita Silvestri, the founders of Diana Corp.

Pietro Busnardo, Lorena Lorenzon and Marika Savegnago formed the team that oversaw the proceedings on behalf of Gradiente. During the transaction, FiloBlu and Gradiente sought the assistance of two law firms: Advant NCTM for matters relating to contracts, negotiations, legal due diligence and tax due diligence, and Terrin Associati for financial due diligence.

As well as the main shareholders and founders Stefano Mocellini and Margherita Silvestri, a minority stake in Diana was also held by H-Farm SpA. They were assisted during the sale process and with contracts and negotiations by Carlo Cianfrone and Emanuele Tessari from the M&A team at SLCD Legal & Corporate Advisors, while KPMG Corporate Finance served as their financial advisor and Banca Euromobiliare aided them with the banking side of things.