Arnault has lost a few deals—most famously, Gucci in 2001 and Hermès in 2014. Gucci: After a decade of successful conquests, Arnault lost the “handbag war” in 2001, when his French rival, François Pinault, took control of Gucci, the Italian fashion house that LVMH had been pursuing. Although Arnault has denied any resentment over this unusual defeat, when the Pinault family donated €100 million to rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral after the 2019 fire, the Arnault family donated €200 million. Hermès: Over the next ten years, Arnault continued to buy up brands like Bulgari (2011) and Loro Piana (2013)—and then tried to go after Hermès, an extremely successful Parisian leather house run by the sixth generation of the founding family, who are “fiercely protective” of maintaining control. When the Dumas family realized that Arnault had used “a stealth tactic common among hedge funds—cash-settled equity swaps”—to acquire 17% of the company, they fought him off in a battle that ended in 2014, when a French court ruled that LVMH had to sell down its stake.