Why Kevin Plank sold his majority stake in Sagamore Spirit to an Italian company

The sale of Kevin Plank’s Sagamore Spirit to an Italian multinational company has been in the works for years as the Under Armour founder sought to expand the Baltimore-based rye whiskey distillery’s reach across the globe. Plank has been seeking to raise the profile of his oak-barrel-aged whiskey company that was started in 2013 and announced Thursday that Illva Saronno Holding SpA had taken over as majority owner of Sagamore Spirit and would move its North American headquarters to Baltimore from New Jersey.