Amazon acquires online baby care specialty site Quidsi for $540M

November 8, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Amazon has acquired rival e-commerce company Quidsi for around $540m, according to several reports. An announcement is due later today.

Diapers.com was founded in Montclair, New Jersey, by Marc Lore and Vinit Bharara. It is described as the largest online baby care specialty site in the United States.

Recent Amazon deals reported on Fusion DigiNet

USA, Montclair, NJ & San Francisco, CA

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Social shopping site LivingSocial acquires Urban Escapes

October 20, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Social shopping site LivingSocial has acquired social adventure company Urban Escapes. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“By working closely with merchants in all of our markets, LivingSocial has helped thousands of people across the country experience fun and exciting things to do in their neighborhood,” said Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO and Co-Founder of LivingSocial. “With the acquisition of Urban Escapes, we will now have the ability to help curate some amazing experiences and adventures exclusively for our members.”

“People who use LivingSocial are already looking for fun, new things to do in the area they live or where they’re visiting,” said Maia Josebachvili, founder and president of Urban Escapes. “We’re passionate about organizing experiences you could never arrange on your own and this acquisition is the perfect opportunity for us to expand these completely unique, guided experiences around the globe.”

USA, Washington, DC

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Naspers internet unit acquires controlling interest in Multiply

September 22, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Naspers has acquired a controlling interest in Multiply, operator of the market leading Social Shopping site Multiply.com.

Multiply, which blends social networking with an online marketplace that now numbers over 70,000 merchants and 20 million monthly unique visitors, will continue to operate under the same management team. The Multiply Marketplace was launched earlier this year to provide an easy way for sellers to be found by buyers within the Multiply network.

“We are delighted to have partnered with Naspers, a recognized world leader in e-commerce in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa, and to be able to draw from their expertise and resources as we solidify our leadership in the Social Shopping space in Southeast Asia,” said Peter Pezaris, Multiply’s president and CEO. “We are continuing to grow the Multiply Marketplace in the region, and Naspers’s backing will no doubt help us accelerate that growth.”

USA, Boca Raton, FL

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OpenTable to acquire toptable.com for $55M

September 19, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

OpenTable, a leading provider of free online reservations for diners and guest management systems for restaurants, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire toptable.com, a leading restaurant reservation site in the United Kingdom, for approximately $55 million USD in cash.

“This acquisition of toptable.com is designed to accelerate the growth of our business in the United Kingdom in a meaningful way,” said Jeff Jordan, President and CEO, OpenTable. “By combining toptable.com’s robust consumer destination site for diners with our best-in-class software for restaurants, we will be able to provide a superior service to restaurants and diners in the United Kingdom.”

“This is an important milestone in toptable’s history. There’s always been mutual admiration between the two companies, and we’re really excited about the future, working as a combined force,” said Karen Hanton MBE, founder of toptable.com.

Transaction and Financial Information

OpenTable will acquire the entire issued share capital, including outstanding options, of privately-held toptable.com for approximately $55 million USD. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2010 and is subject to customary closing conditions. OpenTable plans to finance the acquisition with existing cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. For the fiscal year 2009, toptable.com reported revenues of approximately £6.3 million and net income of £750,000. OpenTable believes it will incur approximately $500,000 in non-recurring transaction and integration costs in both Q3 and Q4, or a total of $1 million through the end of the year. OpenTable will file a Current Report on Form 8-K that will include as an exhibit the Share Purchase Agreement for the acquisition.

BofA Merrill Lynch is acting as financial advisor and Latham & Watkins LLP as legal counsel to OpenTable; Allen & Company is acting as financial advisor and Bird & Bird LLP as legal counsel to toptable.com.

UK, London & USA, San Francisco, CA

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Amazon buys online music retailer Amie Street

September 8, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Amazon.com Inc., seeking to expand its position in the music download market against rivals like Apple Inc.’s iTunes Store, has purchased online music retailer Amie Street for an undisclosed amount.

In an e-mail to users Wednesday, Amie Street said it has found “a great home” for its site AmieStreet.com with Amazon. The Seattle-based online retailer first invested in the site nearly four years ago, Amie Street said.

Amie Street, which is based in Long Island City, N.Y., was founded in 2006. Unlike online music stores like Amazon MP3 and the iTunes Store, the site has allowed users to buy songs that start off free and become increasingly expensive as they rise in popularity.

The e-mail said that starting Sept. 22, site visitors will be forwarded to Amazon.com Web pages, and the AmieStreet.com service will be shut down. Users have until that date to spend any credit they have with the site or download any songs they’ve already purchased.

On Wednesday afternoon, the site was unavailable for use, with visitors greeted by a note informing them that it was “down for maintenance.”

The e-mail said that going forward, Amie Street will focus on developing Songza.com, which is an Internet radio service that lets people build playlists with friends.

USA, San Francisco, CA

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Tiger Global Management acquires 50% stake of Wikimart

August 13, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Quintura reports that private equity firm Tiger Global Management has invested $5 million in exchange for a 50% stake in Russian online mall Wikimart. the article refers to a report in Russian language newspaper Vedomosti. 

Location: Russia, Moscow

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Rakuten completes acquisition of Buy.com

August 13, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Japanese Internet company Rakuten, has closed an all-cash sales transaction to acquire Buy.com.

Buy.com will continue its mission of being a destination site that stands for the best of online shopping as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rakuten, and will remain headquartered in Aliso Viejo, Calif. Rakuten will retain Buy.com’s executive management team and staff.

Buy.com is a retail marketplace with around 14 million customers. Buy.com was founded in June 1997.

In Japan, Rakuten has approximately 64 million registered members and sales in 2009 totaled US$3.2 billion. Its core business “Rakuten Ichiba” is Japan’s largest Internet shopping mall. In addition to its Internet shopping mall, Rakuten, which has more than 6,000 employees, is engaged in other Internet businesses such as travel agency and financial services.

Location: USA, Aliso, CA

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Amazon acquires online retailer Woot.com

June 30, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Amazon is to acquire Woot.com, an Internet retailer based in Texas. It was founded by electronics wholesaler Matt Rutledge and debuted on July 12, 2004. Woot’s main website generally offers only one discounted product each day, often a piece of computer hardware or an electronic gadget. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Woot HQ will remain in Carrollton, Texas, and will operate as autonomously as other Amazon companies like Zappos and Audible.

Woot had plenty to say about the acquisition. See below.

Location: USA, Carrollton, TX

Ref: F231109-525

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ISIS invests £4 million in online retailer GettingPersonal.co.uk

June 29, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

ISIS Equity Partners, investing funds from the Baronsmead VCTs, has completed a £4 million investment in GettingPersonal.co.uk Limited, a leading online retailer which sells personalised and unique gifts.

The South Manchester based business was established in November 2005 by John Smith and Giles Harridge with just one product, a personalised calendar. GettingPersonal.co.uk now sells over 4,000 items ranging from personalised cards, notebooks, mugs and chocolate to non-personalised items for general gifting.

GettingPersonal.co.uk sells direct to consumers through its website and in 2009 had six million visitors and recorded sales of £9.6 million.

ISIS will support management to establish GettingPersonal.co.uk as the leading personalised online gifting retailer in a fast growing UK market. In doing this the Company’s focus will continue to be offering customers innovative gift ideas across a huge range of categories.

Commenting on the deal, co-founder and joint managing director, John Smith said: “The business has grown rapidly over the past five years and we still believe there is further scope for expansion in both product portfolio and our marketing capability. ISIS clearly has a firm understanding of the online retail space and we are very excited about working with them as GettingPersonal.co.uk enters the next phase of its development.”

David Cowan, who led the transaction on behalf of ISIS said: “John and Giles are exactly the sort of dynamic, forward thinking entrepreneurs that we love working with. They have taken a very simple concept and turned it in to a multi-million pound business in a very short space of time and, having worked successfully with many other leading e-tailers, we hope to be able to help management at GetttingPersonal.co.uk with the next stage of its journey.”

Following the transaction Steve Richards will join the Board as Chairman. Steve’s background includes being CEO of the hugely successful online flower retailer Interflora. Commenting on the deal Steve said “I look forward to working with John and Giles, and am impressed with the Company they have built to date. I believe my experience of online retail will be beneficial to the team and see this as an exciting opportunity within the market.”

Location: UK, Manchester

Ref: F231109-516

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Tengelmann buys into eRetailer Baby-Markt.de

June 2, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Tengelmann E-Commerce-Beteiligungs GmbH, a subsidiary of Tengelmann Group, has acquired a 49.9% stake in Spiel & Baby GmbH, owners of Baby-Markt.de.

Baby-Markt.de was founded in 2003 by Albert Lütgenau in Dortmund. It employs employs 90 staff and dispatches up to 4,000 consignments of baby and toddler items daily. The range comprises approx. 12,000 in-stock items. Sales in 2009 amounted to over €30 million.

“We have found a strong partner in Tengelmann, who will enable us to continue to achieve our ambitious growth targets, in particular in the development of our market position in Germany and the expansion in further European countries,” said Albert Lütgenau, managing partner of Baby-Markt.de.

“Baby-Markt.de is one of the leading online retailers and therefore fits perfectly with our e-commerce strategy. I am particularly pleased that Spiel & Baby GmbH is also an owner-managed business, like Tengelmann,” explained Karl-Erivan W. Haub, managing partner of the Tengelmann Group.

Tengelmann also took stakes in online retailers brands4friends and Zalando earlier this year

Tengelmann E-Commerce-Beteiligungs GmbH, based in Mülheim an der Ruhr. Since the end of 2009, the subsidiary of the Tengelmann Group has been investing in fast growing young enterprises and has already become a significant start-up investor in Germany. The investment focus is on e-commerce and social commerce concepts, market places as well as Internet and Web 2.0 technologies.

Location: Germany, Mülheim an der Ruhr

Ref: F231109-475

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