Leonardo Del Vecchio, the Italian billionaire founder of Ray ban dies at age 87, with a net worth of $24.8 Billion

At Milan’s San Raffaele Hospital in Italy, the billionaire creator of Luxottica, an eyeglasses conglomerate that owns billion-dollar brands like Ray-Ban, Oakley, and Sunglass Hut, passed away today.

Although the cause of his death was not disclosed, his six surviving children would inherit his money.

The brand Luxottica is a high fashion luxury brand that doesn’t just have signature industry names but also makes glasses and eye wear for other big fashion brands like Chanel, Dolce and Gabbana, Bulgari, Armani and others.

The billionaire is the second richest man in Italy and his company has over 77,734 employees and over 8,000 stores worldwide.

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According to Forbes, the current net worth of Leonardo Del Vecchio and his family is $24.8 billion.

The Billionaire was born poor in Italy and founded the Luxottica store in 1961 and started producing eyewear by itself and with its name.

The company struck a major deal in 1988 when it entered into a licensing agreement with Giorgio Armani. The deal kick-started the success of the company and it started to make more money and gain more influence in the fashion industry.

Under the leadership of the founder, the company then went ahead to purchase other eye wear brands in the industry such as Persol eyewear in 1999, Vogue eyewear in 1990, Ray ban eyewear in 1999 and Sunglasses hut, in 2001.

The company also acquired OPSM a prescription eyewear company in 2003, Pearle Vision in 2004, Surfeyes in 2006, and Cole National in 2004 and Oakley in a US$2.1 billion deal in November 2007

Luxottica merged with Prescription glasses giant Essilor to form EssilorLuxottica a high fashion prescription eyewear brand and currently the largest prescription eyewear company in the world.

Asides his eyewear brand the billionaire also owns a 10% stake in an Italian Investment bank called Mediobanca. All these investments make up the bulk of his fortune.