Dive Brief:

• After recently denying reports that the company was on the verge of collapse, Modern-design furniture e-retailer Fab has bought a Finnish furniture e-retailer known in Scandinavia as “the luxury Ikea.”
• The company, One Nordic Furniture, operates in Helsinki and Stockholm, selling exclusively online. Shoppers can view and try out its products in publicly accessible spaces like hotels rather than in showrooms.
• The move is a sign that Fab is keen on stepping up its own design and manufacture of its products.

Dive Insight:

Fab founder and CEO Jason Goldberg has, until recently, been unusually up front about the company’s downs as well as its ups. Fab began as a gay social network, veering from a reputation as the “gay Yelp” and the “gay Groupon” to a serious and intriguing design and furniture company. The company has recently struggled, but this acquisition is a sign of its ambitions. Stay tuned.