Prologis, the largest U.S. player in commercial real estate including warehouses and fulfillment centers, is acquiring Duke Realty in a deal valued at $26 billion, giving Prologis an additional 153 million square feet of active space plus another 11 million square feet under development in 19 markets. Investors were wary of the move.
UPS has acquired Texas-based startup Delivery Solutions, a platform that offers multi-carrier, same-day delivery services with an impressive client roster across categories that includes nameplates like Abercrombie & Fitch, Giant Eagle, Office Depot and Sephora. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Ryder System Inc. has become the target of a takeover bid by Miami-based private equity firm HG Vora Capital Management, at a proposed price of $86 per share, a 28.4% premium to its 30-day average, according to an SEC filing. Ryder, whose stock surged in response, has itself has been acquiring 3PL assets and investing in technology.
Shopify is acquiring asset-light last-mile startup Deliverr for $2.1B, further building out its fulfillment infrastructure and giving it a counter-move to Amazon’s new Buy With Prime that extends the Prime experience to other retailers. But the question is, will it be enough to enable Shopify to gain ground on its much larger competitor?
Fortia Group is pursing a vacant corner of the brand aggregator market, launching a new financing syndicate that gives entrepreneurs who have exited their ecommerce business an opportunity to invest in aggregators and reap the rewards of their growth.
Amazon continues to expand its ecommerce service offerings through acquisition, the latest example being Veeqo, a UK-based startup that provides inventory and order fulfillment tools for sellers on a variety of platforms including Shopify and eBay in addition to Amazon. The deal closed in November but was just revealed.
From ongoing supply chain and port woes tying up production, distribution and fulfillment worldwide to an encouraging bounce on holiday sales, 2021 was an up-and-down affair in retail and ecommerce, but deep-pocket investors saw all kinds of potential as billions poured in and unicorns proliferated.
Casper Sleep, the once high-flying DTC mattress-in-a-box company whose star descended as profits shrank despite brisk pandemic-era sales, is going private in an acquisition by Durational Capital Management for about a quarter of its $1.1 billion valuation when it went public in February 2020.
Regional carrier LaserShip is acquiring competitor OnTrac for $1.3 billion deal, in one fell swoop changing the equation in last-mile parcel delivery by giving the combined entity coverage of three-quarters of the continental U.S. as ecommerce demand continues to soar.
Ecommerce has turned so mainstream that buyers are lining up to purchase them. So how to determine the value of yours? This is essential for getting to a sale but can also inform all kinds of decisions, from business expansion to estate management. Here are a few useful tools to determine how to best value your ecommerce business.