Armani is one of the only large, established fashion houses still controlled and designed by its founder– but Giorgio Armani won’t be able to run the show forever. There’s been a lot of discussion and speculation over what might happen to his fashion empire. While that discussion has been going on for years, it’s been an especially hot topic of late due to recent reports that Armani plans to create a foundation that will maintain control of the company once he steps down.

First, a couple of weeks ago, an Italian weekly magazine speculated that Armani might leave his company to a foundation and WWD picked up the story. He later told the Wall Street Journal that it was an option he was exploring. Last week, Armani was in Beijing to celebrate his company’s first decade in China, where he told WWD that a foundation was “only one of the possibilities; there is nothing substantial there.” However, according to AFP, he told reporters definitively that he has “started a major restructuring: the outside support of a foundation that will allow designated persons to manage the group.”

So what’s the real story? According to a report in today’s WWD, nothing has been decided yet in terms of a foundation. An Armani spokesperson did confirm, however, that the designer would definitely not sell to “private-equity funds interested in short-term returns, nor to private investors with no understanding of fashion, but he would consider selling to a big group if a great offer were presented.”

Armani has always been reluctant to sell his company to investors or a conglomerate like LVMH, who offered to buy a stake in Armani back in 1998. So it’s interesting that it’s something he’s considering now. He told The WSJ, “Today the two companies together would be really something,” referring to Armani and LVMH, suggesting that he may regret the fact that they never struck a deal. Maybe it’s not too late?