Wouldn’t it be useful to have a three-dimensional avatar that’s shaped like you that you could use for online clothes shopping or for video games? We don’t know what Amazon had in mind when it acquired a company that creates 3D models of human bodies for a variety of applications, but it probably involves the mega-retailer’s fashion ambitions. [More]
acquisitions
Walgreens Still Hoping To Get Feds’ Approval For Rite Aid Merger
By 9.18.17
For almost two years now, Walgreens and Rite Aid have been trying to make some kind of committed relationship work, but they remain star-crossed corporations. Walgreens wanted to buy the smaller drugstore chain, then switched to acquiring a few thousand of Rite Aid’s stores when it appeared that Federal Trade Commission approval wasn’t going to happen. Now “people with knowledge of the matter” say that a new version of the deal may finally meet FTC approval. [More]
GrubHub Will Buy Eat24 From Yelp For $287.5M, Free Delivery
By 8.4.17
Just two and a half years ago, Yelp acquired the food delivery site and app Eat24, which seemed like a complementary business at the time. Now GrubHub is buying the site for $287.5 million — a little more than double what Yelp paid for it in 2015 — while the two companies will keep linking to each other and referring customers back and forth. [More]
Amazon’s Likely First Move At Whole Foods: Bring In Warehouse Robots
By 6.26.17 — Updated: 6.27.17
When Amazon and Whole Foods announced that they were getting hitched in the corporate sense, the benefits for both sides were obvious. Amazon would acquire its way into a grocery distribution network and hundreds of stores with upscale customers, and Whole Foods would get a parent company at the forefront of retail technology. What’s likely to be first up for Whole Foods? Warehouse robots. [More]
Walmart Adds Men’s Clothing Retailer Bonobos To Its Collection Of Online Businesses
By 6.16.17
When someone says “retailers of upscale men’s fashion,” you probably don’t picture Walmart. Yet the mega-retailer is adding menswear company Bonobos, which started online and now has boutiques in cities and in Nordstrom stores, to its collection of online brands. [More]
Petsmart Adopts Pet Supplies Site Chewy.com
By 4.18.17
Big-box pet supply store PetSmart is expanding its presence in your pet’s life and in its food dish, acquiring the popular online pet supplies vendor Chewy.com. [More]
Bass Pro Shops Is Still Buying Cabela’s, But For Less Money
By 4.18.17
Since the $5.5 billion deal where Bass Pro Shops agreed to acquire Cabela’s was announced last October, a few things related to the deal have changed. Now the companies have announced that the deal is going forward, but at a price cut of $4 per share of Cabela’s, and the addition of a middleman in the sale of its credit card operations to Capital One. [More]
Amazon Was Thinking About Buying Whole Foods: No, Really.
By 4.12.17
What do you get when you combine a flailing health food chain and an e-commerce giant that’s desperate to get into the grocery business? We could have found out, since Amazon was reportedly thinking about buying Whole Foods. [More]
LeEco And Vizio Call Off Acquisition, Blame “Regulatory Headwinds”
By 4.10.17
Last year, the Chinese electronics company LeEco announced plans to acquire the popular television brand Vizio for around $2 billion. Today, the two companies said they’re calling the merger off, blaming “regulatory headwinds.” [More]
Dollar Express Chain Sells Out To Competitor Dollar General After 1.5 Years
By 4.4.17
Remember back in 2014, when two different retailers fought for the affections of Family Dollar? Dollar Express, the new retail chain born because federal regulators required the chains to sell off stores to preserve competition, has been acquired by competitor Dollar General. [More]
Beloved Indie Clothing Retailer ModCloth To Become Part Of…Walmart?
By 3.15.17 — Updated: 3.17.17
Many startups dream of being acquired by a deep-pocketed benefactor, but sometimes the brand reputations of the startup and of the new parent company don’t quite match up. For example, what does the quirky online retailer ModCloth have in common with Walmart? According to news reports, what they have in common is that Walmart subsidiary Jet has purchased ModCloth. [More]
Walgreens & Rite Aid Willing To Unload More Stores On Fred’s To Make Merger Happen
By 3.14.17
Walgreens and Rite Aid want to merge and become the largest pharmacy chain in the country, and the Federal Trade Commission is the main obstacle in their path. That’s why Walgreens, the much larger partner in this merger, is preparing a new proposal for the regulators, which would include selling off more stores to what’s now a small regional chain. [More]
Sprint Reportedly Talking To White House About Possible Merger With Comcast Or T-Mobile
By 3.6.17
In recent weeks, President Trump has repeatedly mentioned promised investments and jobs from Sprint and its parent company Softbank. Now the wireless provider is reportedly hoping to eventually turn that goodwill — and the Trump administration’s light-touch approach to regulation — into a mega merger, possibly with T-Mobile, Comcast, or others. [More]
Fitbit Kills Off Its ‘Coin’ Payment Service; Devices To Become Useless When Batteries Die
By 2.1.17
Last year, wearable fitness tracker/fitness watch company made a surprising acquisition, buying the payment company Coin with no plan to continue its products. Instead, Fitbit planned to kill off Coin’s own product and integrate the company’s payment technology into its own wearable devices. Now the service will be shutting down next month, and Coin magnetic stripe devices will work for as long as their batteries last, or until your payment card number changes. [More]
Fitbit Buying Smartwatch Maker Pebble’s Software, Hiring Engineers
By 12.7.16 — Updated: 12.8.16
Smartwatches and other wearables just haven’t caught on as much as the electronics industry assumed that they would. Pebble — a smartwatch company most famous for pre-selling its products on Kickstarter only to then make sure that Best Buy shoppers got their orders first — has confirmed that it is shutting down and selling off its various assets. You can now count Fitbit among the scavengers picking at Pebble’s bones. [More]
PepsiCo Announces Purchase Of Kombucha Company KeVita
By 11.22.16
For the second time today, a giant soda company has announced an acquisition of a smaller company that makes drinks that are a lot less sugary. Earlier today, it was Dr Pepper Snapple spending $1.7 billion on flavored water maker Bai Brands. Now comes news that PepsiCo is acquiring KeVita, a brand known for its kombucha offerings. [More]
Chinese Owner Of AMC Theaters Buying Dick Clark Productions For $1B
By 11.4.16
As it was buzzed about, so it has come to pass: Chinese entertainment giant Dalian Wanda Group is buying Dick Clark Productions for $1 billion. [More]
Verizon Won’t Walk Away From Yahoo Deal, But May Want A Discount
By 10.11.16 — Updated: 11.1.16
Last week there were rumors swirling that Verizon was angling to get $1 billion off the $4.8 billion price it’s agreed to pay to buy Yahoo’s internet business. This week, the company’s CEO says there’s no way Verizon is going to leave Yahoo at the altar after its recent troubles, but that being said, there are some factors to consider when it comes to that final price. [More]
