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LOCKHART STEELE — Seems like just a few weeks ago Valleywag was musing on the subject of The Rollup. (Oh, wait.) Then today's newsprint brings this: social dogooder-cum-softcore pornographer Dov Charney has sold his American Apparel clothing business to the Endeavor Acquisition Corporation, a small, publicly traded group that's making its first acquisition with American Apparel.

So, besides your teenage cousins, who cares?

First, considering the amount of web-branded schwag printed on its shirts, American Apparel is really a tech company, right? Which means this move further validates the rollup exit strategy that's infesting conversations at cocktail parties across the Valley and here in New York.

Okay, not really. But, at a time when some figured Charney to be contemplating an IPO, he chose the rollup route. Interesting.

One other angle: American Apparel has been one of the most aggressive advertisers in vertical web content including, yes, Gawker Media blogs. One assumes the acquisition won't change the company's ad strategy, but to be fair, one never knows.

Retail Embodiment of Sartorial Perversion To Be Acquired By Investment Bank [Dealbreaker]
Endeavor Acquisition Corp. Ticker [Google Finance]

UPDATE: An Alert Valleywag reader scolds me (and I like it!): "The American Apparel deal is not a rollup. It's a reverse merger, also known — and I'm sure Dov Charney would prefer this term — as a 'back-door IPO.' If Endeavor had simultaneously bought AA and several other companies, I'd buy a description of the deal as a "reverse merger/rollup". But not for just one company. Yep, this is just a reverse merger. The company is going to be called American Apparel, plans to expand the brand, no plans mentioned of buying other companies. I mostly just want to read the headline 'Dov Charney Likes the Back Door.'"

Well, I figured more acquisitions in the space would be in the works, but okay, fair enough. And so there's the real headline, boldfaced for his pleasure.