The Dealmaking That Brought Tiffany to LVMH

When Tiffany & Co. shareholders gather one last time on Tuesday to sign off on the company’s $16.2 billion sale to LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, it will be an ending, a beginning and, for some key executives, a very big pay day. The 183-year-old New York retailer — which has its very own blue, has tried to own the concept of love through its engagement business and touts its star turn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” — will next week give up life as an independent company. But its port in the retail storm is a good one and under the umbrella of LVMH and the watchful eye of its chief Bernard Arnault, the American jeweler can start to craft a new and potentially much-higher profile image.  The acquisition — the largest luxury deal in Arnault’s long and storied career of luxury consolidation — is the result of a whirlwind six-week autumn courtship, details of which have been laid out in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  It was a dance that included a high-powered working lunch, long weekends, an army of bankers, a call directly from Arnault to Tiffany’s banker, Goldman Sachs, and an effort to gin up competition from four

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