Kris Jenner Talks Daughter Kylie’s $600 Million Coty Deal

After Kylie Jenner, 22, sold a controlling stake in her cosmetic startup, Kylie Cosmetics, to the beauty conglomerate Coty Inc. for $600 million, her mother, Kris Jenner, took to CNBC to clarify her daughter’s motivation.

Jenner, the youngest member of the Kardashian-Jenner clan, and Coty plan to expand the beauty brand globally and branch out to new categories.

“I think the goal is to just keep building Kylie’s existing beauty business into a global powerhouse brand,” said Jenner in an interview with CNBC co-anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin on “Squawk Box.”

“That is the vision. And we decided to partner with Coty because they share the same vision that we do in building this into a huge thing. And you know, we dream big and this is something we are so excited about.”

The move to partner with Coty, with Kylie now owning 49 percent of her company, was part of a strategic initiative to market the brand globally. According to Jenner, Kylie Cosmetics is her daughter’s “dream,” but this gives Kylie an opportunity to focus on the creative aspect more so than the business side.

Kylie Cosmetics

“We’ve been in business just a few years and [we are] so proud of what she has built and she is so excited about the partnership. But at the same time, you know, this is her dream is to build this beauty empire.”

As for gaining equity partners like Coty in the family’s other brands, such as Kim Kardashian West’s KKW and Skims, Jenner remains open to the idea as the companies expand. “I think there’s always that possibility as the businesses grow.”

She clarified, however, that this is not the aim, adding, “I think that the focus for the kids isn’t always about growing it just to sell it. I think they are really so passionate about what they’re doing.”

While taking on outside business partners may not be the family’s aim, Jenner does recognize that her daughters are still quite young — with the oldest, Kourtney, being 41 — and have other interests. “I think it’s very exciting for them, and I think that if they do grow the business, and they’re able to sell something and keep having a hand in it, that that’s kind of the ideal situation.”

Jenner credits “communication” as the key to building successful brands within her family. “… I do that a lot with the girls and I think just really communicating about what they really want to do with their lives. And, you know, I have ten grandchildren so that’s really exciting. And we spend a lot of time together with the kids. And I’m just really blessed to have this big huge family and there’s a lot of joy mixed in with all of the business, mixed in with the filming. It’s kind of the perfect storm. So I’m really lucky, but I think communication would be the word that, you know, whatever that means to you and just being able to remember to enjoy the really sweet times and the family moments and it’s not all just about business.”

Co-anchor of “Squawk Box” Joe Kernen questioned if the family would ever fully transition into purely business moguls without being on television. As the family approaches filming season 19 of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” Jenner expressed her pride and understanding that being on TV is a business that helps all their other businesses. “We have a very successful television show in almost 200 countries around the world and that really does expand, you know, the global reach for us for sure,” said Jenner.

Describing the media exposure a “blanket,” she added, “That just really expands the reach of all of the kids. It kind of is this blanket across the whole family and I’m just really proud of them.”

Beyond television, Jenner feels as if social media has also played a major role in expanding the family’s reach and brands. She says her digital team tries to figure out what works best for a par-ticular platform. “We kind of spread our social media out amongst different platforms.”

She recalled when they first started shooting KUWTK that there was barely Twitter. “I remember Ryan Seacrest – he called me and said, ‘You might want to tell Kim about this thing called Twitter, she’s going to love it.’ And so there wasn’t even Instagram at that time. So I think being able to adapt to new and different platforms – like now there’s TikTok and there’s, you know, all of these different things.”

While family matriarch respects the marketing power of social media, she does have concerns with it. “I think that the privacy part of it is, obviously I’ve said this very vocally, concerning. And there’s different aspects of social media that any of us might not be real happy about, but then there’s that side of it that’s so amazing. The kids’ ability to go out there and use it for just positive things and obviously for business works really well for us. So it’s been such an amazing asset for my family.”

For her role in her family’s business success, does Jenner get a management fee or royalty? To that, she told Sorkin, “Well, you know, a girl doesn’t talk about everything.”