Does Luxottica Now Have A Monopoly On The Eyeglass Space?

Luxottica Group SpA (ADR) LUX shares are up 8.4 percent on Tuesday after the company announced a nearly $49 billion merger with Essilor International SA ESLOY.

The Merger

The combined company will now have more than 140,000 employees in upward of 150 countries. The two companies generated a combined $16 billion in revenue in 2016.

Investors of both companies are cheering the merger news, as the new entity will certainly have a dominant position in the global eyewear market.

Prior to the merger, Luxottica and Essilor were already the two largest companies in the eyewear space.

Luxottica's Brands

Luxottica owns each of the following popular eyewear brands:

• LensCrafters.
• Sunglass Hut.
• Pearle Vision.
• Sears Optical.
• Target Optical.
• Eyemed.
• Glasses.com.
• Ray-Ban.
• Persol.
• Oakley.

In addition, Luxottica also manufactures eyewear under license for designer brands such as Chanel, Prada and Giorgio Armani.

Essilor is the world’s leading manufacturer of ophthalmic lenses.

The combined company will represent roughly 27 percent of global eyewear market share. The next largest competition is Johnson & Johnson JNJ’s modest 3.9 percent share.

The global eyewear market is expected to grow from $90.3 billion in 2013 to more than $142 billion by 2020.

While Essilor is French and Luxottica is Italian, more than half of the combined company’s revenue will come from the United States.