'Chief mad scientist' sells out

OC sports sunglass maker Oakley Inc. is such a weird company that it's a little sad to see it being swallowed up by Italy's Luxottica Group SpA (it handles Ray-Ban and Ralph Lauren brands). You can hardly blame Oakley founder Jim Jannard, who may get $1.3 billion in the deal (Bloomberg). I mean, the guy started out of a garage in 1975, making rubber motorcycle handgrips that held better when covered in sweat. This year, first-quarter profit tripled to $5.7 million on sales of $199 million. After a six-year stint as CEO, he now holds the titles of chairman and "Chief mad scientist." Company president Colin Baden has been known to race his Hummer in the front parking lot. We're talking strange, folks. Consider the opening of a recent profile in the OC Business Journal:

Richard Shields got a crash course in Oakley Inc.’s commando corporate culture in his first few months on the job. Four guys in ski masks jumped him at his desk. Shields, the Foothill Ranch-based company’s chief financial officer, was blindfolded and handcuffed. Then he was led through hallways to a super secret spot: a newly built microbrewery at Oakley’s 600,000-square-foot headquarters. Chief Executive Scott Olivet, who joined in late 2005, got his own welcome. He was at a company holiday party on a boat cruising Newport harbor when some Oakley security guards and cop friends raced up on a Zodiac. They boarded, hooded and kidnapped Olivet and whisked him to a nearby helicopter, where he was flown to another Oakley party at The Grove in Anaheim.

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There are military jet jump seats in a lobby with 50-foot ceilings. Metal accents everywhere. Research labs for testing. An auditorium with steep stadium seats where shareholders usually start annual meetings by watching radical videos of athletes in Oakley shades doing extreme things. And there’s the brewery. The company recently built it so employees can blow off some steam and brew their own beer. The pub no doubt takes away the sting of the company’s recent conversion of an NBA basketball court into needed office space.