Wal-Mart Stores Inc is buying online men’s clothing retailer Bonobos Inc for US$310 million in cash, showing that its appetite for hip clothing brands shows no sign of abating as it looks for ways to gain on Amazon.com Inc.
It is a sign of the aggressive direction Walmart is taking since buying Jet.com Inc last year and keeping its founder as head of its online division.
Walmart has since bought clothing seller ModCloth Inc, footwear retailer ShoeBuy.com Inc and outdoor-gear seller Moosejaw as it focuses on brands that appeal to younger shoppers.
Bonobos, which started out selling pants online, caters to male shoppers looking for help putting together a wardrobe.
Targeting Bonobos is a good move for Walmart as it tries to compete with Amazon, which has been quickly expanding its clothing business, Internet consultant Sucharita Mulpuru-Kodal said.
“If you roll up enough of these online start-ups, you create a meaningful share” of business, she said.
While Walmart keeps trying to compete against Amazon by pushing harder into online, Amazon announced a bold move into brick-and-mortar stores on Friday by saying it would buy Whole Foods Market Inc.
The Bonobos deal, announced on Friday, is expected to close at the end of the second quarter or the beginning of the third quarter of this fiscal year.
Bonobos chief executive officer and founder Andy Dunn is to report to Walmart’s US online chief executive officer operations Marc Lore.
“Adding innovators like Andy will continue to help us shape the future of Walmart,” Lore said. “They’ve created an amazing product and customer experience, and that will not change.”
Bonobos started online, but like many similar start-ups, has also opened some showrooms. Customers at the Guideshops can try on pants, shirts, ties, belts and jackets with suggestions from stylists, then order online at the store and have their clothes delivered to their home or office a few days later.
The company operates more than 30 stores in US cities like Chicago, New York and Atlanta, and plans to have 100 by 2020.
For Bonobos, the acquisition by Walmart would help expand its business.
Still, Mulpuru-Kodal said, it is a bit of “a game of Monopoly.”
“Walmart has huge coffers. Even if one of them shows promise, it pays for the rest,” she said.
Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart’s online business is gaining momentum, but remains a distant second to Amazon.
It increased 63 percent in the fiscal first quarter, up from 29 percent in the previous period. That marked the fourth-straight quarter of gains.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
RSS