Shares of Puma SE moved nearly 5 percent higher on Tuesday as speculation grows that its rival Adidas may be setting the stage for a possible takeover.
Roy Adams, co-founder of U.S. investment firm Metronuclear, first raised the merger prospect in an interview with German business newspaper Handelsblatt on Friday. “Puma is in a state of emergency,” Adams told the paper. “If management fails to turn things around, a merger with Adidas is the best option.”
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When reached by FN, a spokesperson for Puma declined to comment. A representative from Adidas noted that the company “refrains from commenting on market speculation as a matter of principle.”
Outside of the Adidas buzz, speculation about a potential sale had temporarily boosted Puma’s share price in August after a Bloomberg story claimed that Artémis, the Pinault family’s holding company, could potentially sell its stake in the German sports brand.
According to Bloomberg, unnamed sources close to the deal stated that the billionaire family behind Kering Group is “working with advisers” to potentially sell its 29 percent stake in Puma through Artémis. (The stake is worth roughly 800 million euros.)
In July, Puma released preliminary second-quarter results that were below expectations. In Q2 2025, Puma sales fell by 2 percent, in currency adjusted terms, to 1.94 billion euros.
At the time of the earnings release, Puma also made deep cuts to its guidance for the rest of the year. The German brand now expects sales to drop by low-double digits over the whole year and also issued a profit warning. Previously the company had been much more upbeat, predicting low growth and a positive EBIT — earnings before income and taxes — of somewhere between 445 million and 525 million euros. Now it expects a loss.
But the company is making strides in turning things around.
In April, Puma SE chief executive officer Arne Freundt stepped down from his role, with the company citing “differing views on strategy execution” as for why he left the brand.
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