TopGolf Offloads German Outerwear Disaster to Chinese Conglomerate for $290 Million—About Time…

Well, Topgolf Callaway is finally cutting Jack Wolfskin loose, and no one seems particularly sad about it. Not shareholders, not analysts, and probably not even the folks at corporate who’ve been trying to make this weird German outdoor brand fit into a golf-centric portfolio for the past six years. The sale price comes down to $290 million in cash, courtesy of ANTA Sports—the Chinese giant that’s been collecting outdoor and activewear brands about as fast as Xi Jingping collecting punches from Trump these days. 

(Source: Giphy) 

Yet, shares of Topgolf dropped 3.5% on the news, which is kind of hilarious considering this is the cleanest break the company has made in years. What that drop really says is: investors are still unsure what the hell this company actually is or wants to be. You’ve got golf clubs, golf balls, some golf-adjacent apparel, and then this weird Frankenstein of a business called Topgolf that serves cocktails and buckets of balls to drunk millennials at night (it’s me, I’m the drunk millenial LOL). Oh, and yeah, until now, they’ve been selling a German brand who makes hiking jackets that nobody in the U.S. gives a sh*t about. 

Meaning, this sale is clearly part of a bigger cleanup act. Topgolf Callaway wants to split off Topgolf, the only part of their business with real growth juice, and they don’t want to do it while carrying around a brand that’s been dragging EBITDA like an anchor. Jack Wolfskin was expected to lose €18 million in the first half of 2025. Call it active bleeding if you will. 

(Source: Investing.com) 

Additionally, management was projecting a miraculous back-half recovery to €30 million in EBITDA, which sounds like complete fantasy accounting. And yet, they still managed to sell the thing for an implied 22x forward EBITDA. So either ANTA has a weird ninja trick up its sleeve with this (considering the stock mooned nearly 10% on the news), or they just really, really wanted a foothold in the European outdoor market. Either way, it's not Topgolf Callaway’s problem anymore. 

(Source: PR Newswire) 

What’s also wild about this, is that investors never really understood why Callaway bought Jack Wolfskin in the first place. It was supposed to be part of some grand pivot into "active lifestyle," but all it really did was confuse the company’s identity and weigh down the balance sheet. Now they get to wave goodbye and pocket nearly $300 million in cash—which, by the way, will come in handy when they try to convince Wall Street that Topgolf deserves to be a standalone public company. Apparently, management believes Newsmax walked, so TopGolf could run in this dead IPO market. 

(Source: Giphy) 

But alas, the fact that they didn’t update guidance tells you everything. They want this thing off their books and out of the narrative before earnings season rolls around. And honestly, that’s probably the right move. Jack Wolfskin wasn’t adding value. It was a distraction. And with the Topgolf spinoff looming, they need to streamline the story—not explain why they still own a European hiking brand in a business that’s supposed to be about golf, booze, and dumb TikTok challenges. 

So yeah, call it what it is: a strategic divestiture that finally makes sense, and was long overdue. For now, keep an eye on TopGolf, especially in regards to what they’ll do with their newfound cash. But until then, place your bets accordingly, and stay safe and stay frosty, friends! Until next time… 

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Stocks.News does not hold positions in companies mentioned in the article.