Alba co-founded The Honest Company, which places a heavy emphasis on selling non-toxic household products. She launched the company in 2011 with Brian Lee, an entrepreneur who co-founded Legalzoom.com and ShoeDazzle.com.
According to a Recode report, Alba is now in talks to sell the company, and the likely buyer could be a large consumer product company, such as Procter & Gamble Co PG or Unilever plc (ADR) UL. Finally, Honest Company was preparing itself for an initial public offering in February of this year but those plans were put on hold. Sources familiar with the situation told Recode that the company did not feel that the public market was going to be receptive to its offering at the time.
Recode added that Alba's company was recently valued at $1.7 billion last year when it raised $100 million.
Alba may have also picked an opportunistic time in discussing a potential sale. Consumer-packaged goods companies are now "grappling with the increasing importance of e-commerce to their future" but have also "become intrigued by startups" that boast large followings.
Forty (40) percent of Honest Company's business comes from selling through the traditional retail landscape and the remainder comes from online sales.
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