Japan's Rakuten to acquire shopping portal Buy.com for $250 million
22 May 2010
Japan's largest internet shopping mall operator Rakuten Inc. will acquire California-based shopping portal Buy.com for $250 million, marking its entry into the US market with a view to expand globally.
Tokyo-based Rakuten plans to purchase in an all-cash deal the entire stake in Buy.com through Rakuten USA Inc making Buy.com its wholly-owned subsidiary.
The acquisition will be completed in late June, Rakuten said.
The transaction is expected to make one of the largest online retail marketplaces worldwide, with more than 60 million products from about 35,000 merchants.
Rakuten already has presences in Korea, Thailand and China, after it acquired LinkShare, a New York-based performance-marketing firm for $425 million five years ago.
Rakuten, an nternet firm through its business unit, Rakuten Ichiba, markets more than 50 million products from more than 33,000 merchants and had sales totaling $3.2 billion in 2009.
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