Walmart Acquires Jet.com for $3B
Walmart has cut its biggest cheque yet in the battle for e-commerce supremacy. The announcement confirmed rumours that the retail giant has penned a deal with the barely one-year-old jet.com for approximately $3 billion: “Walmart.com will grow faster, the seamless shopping experience we’re pursuing will happen quicker, and we’ll enable the Jet brand to be even more successful in a shorter period of time” said Doug McMillon, president and CEO, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
The deal, which includes an additional $300 million of Walmart shares, is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to proceed later this year. Walmart and Jet will maintain two separate brands, while leveraging their synergies behind the scenes explained Jet co-founder and CEO Marc Lore, “The combination of Walmart’s retail expertise, purchasing scale, sourcing capabilities, distribution footprint, and digital assets – together with the team, technology and business we have built here at Jet – will allow us to deliver more value to customers.”
Walmart did not release any information about Jet.com’s customer base, revenue or profitability. Walmart’s second quarter earnings are scheduled for release on Thursday August 18.
